http://www.eyewitnessnews.co.za/articleprog.aspx?id=45064

W Cape government alarmed by townships’ growth
Regan Thaw

Some NGO’s and the Western Cape government have expressed concern over the rate at which some informal settlements are expanding.

The group Abahlali Basemjondolo said the steady growth in townships is fuelling the struggle for service delivery.

Some squatter camps are growing by ten percent every year.

Meanwhile, the provincial Human Settlements Department has admitted it is struggling to meet the rising demand for formal homes.

Residents of Zwelitsha Enkaznini informal settlement in Khayelitsha told Eyewitness News they notice new shacks almost weekly.

With more people moving into the area the struggle for already scarce services intensifies.

People are forced to queue for water as there are reportedly only five working taps in the township.

Housing activist, Mthobeli Qona showed Eyewitness News a dumping ground of sorts which is also used as impromptu toilet facilities.

But some have become entrepreneurs, selling corrugated iron to shack dwellers. Other homeowners bordering the settlement charge people to use their toilets.

A MORE ’INNOVATIVE APPROACH’ NEEDED?

A Cape Town academic has suggested Western Cape authorities need to become more innovative in their response to the province’s housing shortage.

Social anthropologist at the University of Cape Town, Fiona Ross, said various factors cause people to move to squatter camps.

“So they had lived on a farm and as those farms mechanised or as they sold up for urban development those people were displaced and had come to the city. There is a great influx…”

(Edited by Aletta Gardner)