SA going backwards in housing

THERE’s been much outrage from housing activists after Human Settlements Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi’s admission that most of South Africa’s approximately 2 700 informal settlements were unsuited for development.

Kubayi’s admission goes against government’s previous policies which sought to upgrade informal settlements to formal neighbourhoods. Instead of upgrading informal settlements, government’s previous policies had the reverse effect by encouraging land invasion, thereby perpetuating squalid conditions.

“I have been engaging many communities in informal settlements. The priority is to discourage illegal occupation of land and request municipalities to ensure that we don’t allow anymore illegal occupation,” said Kubayi.

Finally, someone at the top has seen the folly of what happens when land invasions are left unchecked. In Cape Town, the Driftsands Nature Reserve will soon be de-proclaimed because land invaders had destroyed precious flora to build their shacks.

“This illegal occupation of land denies us an opportunity to plan and implement human settlements program properly. Moreover, these are the areas which have been mainly affected by disasters and leads to the loss of life,” said Kubayi.

What was missing from her speechwas an admission that government’s RDP housing programme has, over the years, morphed into something unrecognisable from its stated aims and has encouraged land invasions.

In Khayelitsha for instance, many of those who have invaded the land to build shacks do not qualify for a government-subsidised home, either because they have already benefited and have sold their homes or because they earn more than R3 500.

Like many things in South Africa, a policy that was supposed to address, and correct the painful effects of apartheid, has been corrupted.

What Kubayi did not say in her speech was that informal settlements had become havens for criminals.

There are better alternatives to informal settlements, alternatives that would reverse the legacy of apartheid by placing low-cost housing closer to economic opportunities. But the ANC government will never see through such policies, because they are governed by austerity motives.