Newsletter 19 – Housing concerns– 30 April 2009
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A municipality has a responsibility to structure and manage its administration, budgeting, and planning processes to give priority to the basic needs of the community, and to promote their social and economic development.
Housing is a concern for local government, but the problem of whose responsibility it should be, remains. The Constitution highlights housing as an area for co-operative governance.
The State must take reasonable legislative and other measures, within its available resources, to achieve the progressive realisation of the provision of housing. However, a municipality has a responsibility to structure and manage its administration, budgeting, and planning processes to give priority to the basic needs of the community, and to promote their social and economic development.
Local government also has a particularly important role in this regard due to its knowledge of the communities under its jurisdiction. This enables local government to identify areas where housing, among other things, is needed. Municipalities are also able to provide land for the building of housing in areas where communities will have easy access to transport routes to school and work places.
While the Government has provided more than 2 million houses to South Africans, it is important to note where these houses are still required.
The increase in the number of formal houses exists concurrently with an increase in the number of informal settlements arising. The number of households living in formal housing increased from 5 834 819 in 1996 to 8 819 521 in 2007, an increase of 51.2%. During the same period, the number of households living in informal dwellings increased from 1 453 015 in 1996 to 1 804 432 in 2007, an increase of 24.2%. This implies that municipalities, especially urban municipalities, are chasing a moving target.
Informal dwellings are more prevalent in urban areas, to which people migrate in search of employment and better education. This is why urban municipalities tend to have an immense challenge in the provision of housing.
Of all metropolitan municipalities, the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality has experienced the largest increase in the number of people since 1996. The number of people in the metro increased from 2 211 018 people in 1996, to 2 638 466 in 2006. The highest rate of growth has been in the south, where the townships of Katlehong, Vosloorus and Tokoza , Kwa-Thema, Tsake, and Duduza are. Other concentrations of low-income housing are concentrated in the eastern periphery (Daveyton and Etwatwa) and the north east (Tembisa). However, a number of relatively well-located informal settlements have developed near Germiston, Boksburg, and Benoni.
The 2007 Community Survey published by Statistics South Africa showed that 220 600 households or 26% of households in Ekurhuleni lived in informal dwellings. Of these households 77 161 lived in an informal house in a backyard while 143 439 lived in informal settlements.
Each municipality experiences poverty in different ways, and these will be explored during the Major Urban Poverty Challenges Identification (MUPCI) workshops which will take place between May and August 2009 at each of the eight target municipalities. Councillors, officials, and development organisations in each of the eight target municipalities are encouraged to attend these workshops.
The municipal outreach project aims to provide extensive research, such as that used in the above analysis, to municipalities covered by the Municipal Outreach Project. This will be done by means of publications, the project website, and workshops. A monthly publication called Fast Facts for Local Government (F3LG) is sent to local councillors, officials, and development organisations in the eight municipalities covered by the project. A weekly newsletter is posted on the project website on Fridays, and e-mailed to project beneficiaries. The annual South Africa Survey, published by the Institute, will be posted to municipalities and extracts posted on the project website.
-Nthamaga Kgafela
by
nkgafela
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last modified
2009-05-04 10:57
