Sunday Times: Plan flops to house poor next to rich

http://www.timeslive.co.za/sundaytimes/article579437.ece/Plan-flops-to-house-poor-next-to-rich

Plan flops to house poor next to rich
Progressive projects fail to get off the ground
Aug 1, 2010 12:00 AM | By BONGANI MTHETHWA
Controversial government plans to build low-cost housing next to plush suburbs has not changed South Africa’s housing landscape

The much-vaunted programme to end shack living, launched in 2004, was meant to integrate rich and poor communities to address a backlog of some 2.4 million homes.

Officially known as Breaking New Ground, the policy would result in apartments and multi-storey complexes built next to expensive suburbs and gated communities, with the not-so-well-heeled becoming neighbours of the wealthy.

But, six years later, some of the projects, meant to showcase the country’s progressive policy of promoting racially integrated cities, have either been shelved or failed to materialise.

This could seriously hamper state plans to speed up housing delivery to the poor and have all South Africans accommodated in formally planned settlements by 2014.

In Cape Town, plans to build about 750 houses and triple-storey flats for low- and middle-income families in upmarket Constantia have been shelved because of a land claim dispute.

In Durban, inclusionary housing in Westville, Chatsworth, Phoenix, KwaMashu and Newlands East has failed to get off the ground two years after it was launched.

ANC councillor Nigel Gumede, who heads the city’s housing committee, said no oversight role or monitoring system had been in place.

The N2 Gateway project next to the Joe Slovo shack settlement in Cape Town, intended to benefit 20000 shack dwellers, has also been beset with problems.

But Nathan Adriaanse, spokesman for the Western Cape Department of Human Settlements, said that despite this, 8186 families had been accommodated in new houses.

He said the greatest challenge over the past year had revolved around the closure of Thubelisha Homes, appointed to manage the project after the withdrawal of the City of Cape Town in 2006.

Professor Marie Huchzermeyer of Wits University said an inclusionary housing policy should never be viewed, implemented or assessed only on a project basis, as in South Africa.

“It’s a policy that has to be entrenched through zoning and municipal revenue systems. Yes, we do need innovative projects, but these will never come off the ground as long as there are only a few ‘inclusionary’ zones and the rest of the city may remain segregated,” she said.

Thabani Zulu, the director-general of the national Department of Human Settlements, said a major challenge was the lack of suitable and affordable land.

“Problems are being addressed and resolved. The not-in-my-backyard mentality of some middle- to high-income families has in many cases delayed and constrained the programme,” he said.

He said the N2 Gateway was never intended as an integrated development but targeted at low-income families. He said that Cosmo City in Randburg, Bendor in Limpopo, Zanemvula in Port Elizabeth, and Olievenhoutbosch in Centurion had yielded positive results.