EDITOR ' S NOTE
A house *, a house my kingdom for a house !
(* Acknowledgement and apologies to Shakespeare – Richard III )
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The development of integrated human settlements is aimed at transforming spatial housingpatterns in South Africa by creating more inclusive , denser , mixed-use urban areas while striving for a more functional housing market that adequately responds to both supply and demand for all levels of affordability and need .”
This introduction is extracted from the Human Settlements website and was one of the main points out of the NDP . The questions that come out of this statement is , what is the progress ? To be blunt we have not progressed very far in housing our people .
Government bureaucracy , slow progress in consolidating all the many steps a developer must mount to build , from title deeds to the process of dealing with local authorities , most of whom are dysfunctional and care nothing for the people , hence the restlessness of the people . Too much politics is at play which is always a major stumbling block .
Rory Macnamara , Editor
“ To be blunt we have not progressed very far in housing our people .”
Of course , our highly corrupt country just does not help and Covid-19 has showed how weak our department of Human Settlements , Water & Sanitation is .
Our penchant in this country to label people by their earnings is annoying as this just adds to separation of people and placing them in boxes . Whereas Affordable Housing is a relative term and applies to all , irrespective of earnings , it boils down to what one can afford .
As soon as we think holistically perhaps , we can make progress . Rather than thinking we must build some ‘ social housing ’ or
‘ affordable housing ’ or some other descriptive term , let rather get on with the job .
The private sector and funding bodies via government are working on this and they are to be commended but it is simply not fast enough !
Gert Minnaar in his STBB column refers to the Spatial Planning and land use management Act of 2013 which commenced on the 1 July 2015 , and promises to ease the many steps and frustrations experienced by developers , financiers , and housing agencies . It is now 2021 and the progress in this has been very slow . Why ?
CAHF , in their report ‘ The Transaction Support : Lessons learned ’ identified the problems and difficulties in Khayelitsha , Cape Town . It also made valid suggestions and offered solutions . How have these been taken up ?
Chris Campbell of CESA offers some interesting insights into affordability in his column .
Perhaps it would be good for some public servants swanning at home under the guise of Covid-19 to be given meaningful work like working on the needs identified in these inputs and get moving with the intention of producing a sensible plan going forward .
Whilst Richard III never got his horse , we all should work to getting a house for each person / family as every house is the owner ’ s castle !
Rory
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2 MARCH - APRIL 2021 SAAffordHousing saaffordablehousingmag SA Affordable Housing www . saaffordablehousing . co . za