The PA accepts that it remains the responsibility of the state to ensure that its citizens, particularly its poorest and most vulnerable, are properly housed. It has however become evident that many of the houses government has built are not decent houses. They are not properly divided, do not have access to electricity or other required infrastructure and are not considered safe. The PA is aware of the reasons why this has been the outcome and will institute a human settlements programme that offers quality and not simply shoddy quantity.

 

The renamed Human Settlements Department has still not succeeded in integrating communities into their own settlements with the required facilities and access to resources. National government should be the custodian of housing but should allow municipalities to be the direct implementing agencies where they have the capacity and track record to do so. Provinces should only play a role in establishing spatial development and land-use frameworks.

 

The bodies responsible for housing applications and housing allocation, respectively, should be maintained as separate units. This will reduce corruption and manipulation. Housing applications and allocations should in any event be approved by a separate oversight body.

 

The PA will also revisit apartheid-era housing arrangements that live on to this day that require tenants to pay rent on houses owned by the state. Such rental arrangements need to be re-examined extremely critically in order to transfer such homes over to their tenants, many of whom have been renting in these buildings for decades.

 

The PA undertakes that when families are temporarily rehoused while their new homes are being built or their old homes upgraded, they will not be housed in disrespectful conditions such as expecting them to live in shipping containers, as is sometimes current practice.

 

It may also be necessary to upgrade these state-owned buildings to a uniformly acceptable standard before handing over their ownership.

 

The PA understands that South Africans would also like the opportunity to build their own homes, therefore more land needs to be made available for this to take place, with the full support of municipal servicing for these endeavours. There have been many examples of people who receive RDP houses who demolish these poorly built structures and rebuild their own homes anyway. This is inefficient and a waste of time, energy, labour and physical resources.

 

In order to reduce such inefficiency, a system can be put in place whereby the state provides building materials up to a certain payment cap, allowing residents to then build their own homes, contributing extra funding to the extent that the household can afford.

 

The PA contends that the rate of service delivery in poor settlements in South Africa has been unacceptably slow. More efficient systems of sanitation, with improved access to electricity and water, will be a top priority for the PA.

 

As far as water supply and sanitation, some predictions show surface water supply in South Africa could decrease by 60% by the year 2070 in parts of the Western Cape. South Africa has an estimated total water capacity of 38 billion cubic metres, but will need 65 billion by 2025 if the economy is to keep on growing. Massive urban migration has placed further strain on the country’s ageing water infrastructure and has created a large backlog. The PA will build massive infrastructure, including partnerships with neighbouring or other SADC countries in order to ensure South Africa’s future water security and create jobs.