Housing Delivery in the Metros: briefing by Joburg, Tshwane, Cape Town

Meeting report

HOUSING PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE
11 June, 2003
HOUSING DELIVERY IN THE METROS: BRIEFING BY JOBURG, TSHWANE, CAPE TOWN

Chairperson: Ms Z Kota (ANC)

Documents handed out:
Jo'burg: Housing the City
Housing in Cape Town: Presentation
Housing in Cape Town: Pictures
City of Tshwane: Presentation
City of Tshwane: Briefing

SUMMARY
Presentations were delivered by the City of Joburg, City of Tshwane and the City of Cape Town. The various housing projects and related infrastructural conditions were discussed. The three municipalities highlighted the challenges they faced in trying to meet their mandate. Common challenges included the misperception that relocation was a punishment and not to the peoples' benefit. The Peoples' Housing Process (PHP) came across as a favourable approach but slow on delivery in sectors already facing huge backlogs. The influx of people from neighbouring regions was also said to be an ongoing concern. Also noted were farmers who were evicting people hoping the metro would intervene, pay exorbitant rent or buy the land at over-priced amounts.

MINUTES
City of Joburg
Mr J Maimela (Director: Housing) and Councillor Strike Ralegoma jointly briefed the Committee on the housing situation in the City of Joburg. Cclr Ralegoma noted that 47 of the 89 informal settlements had been formalised permanently. They intended putting in place proper registration and tighter management that would help contain and not promote the influx of people into the City; and hopefully encourage people to make proper prior arrangements before arriving. The challenge they faced was with people subletting a formal settlement that is still in the process of upgrade, as this hampered the sustainability and progress of projects.

Another challenge faced by the City was that 33 of the informal settlements are on private land, which would mean having to relocate people. He said land often occupied was usually not developable for various reasons, thus necessitating relocation. It was stressed that people needed to be educated on relocation since they presently viewed it as a form of punishment rather than movement to sites to help them start developing.

Cclr Ralegoma explained that they were having difficulty with the Peoples Housing Process (PHP) tendering procedure. They were not sure how to circumvent tendering procedure with only the four housing support centres. He pointed out that social housing was accessible only to certain people and not to the poorest of the poor.

Discussion
Mr C Mabena (ANC) wanted to know how big the sites were.

Cclr Ralegoma said that relocated people were given 250m² not as punishment but for their betterment. he explained that prior to relocation, the insufficient space between shacks meant that a burning shack could set alight the adjacent shacks easily. Depending on the size of the settlement, land could be identified that could accommodate resettlement with space and sanitation.

Ms J Semple (DA) asked what had become of the people living in hostels that had been subsequently turned into family units. The response given was that hostel dwellers that agreed to forgo subsidies from where they originally came, were accommodated and phased into the programme. The houses built by the previous government in Phiri that were four roomed, shared by two families, were difficult to transfer but family-less hostellers could ideally become beneficiaries.

In answer to Ms Semple asking what had happened to Vlakfontein, the Councillor explained that the recent media reports about Vlakfontein should not be taken seriously as the area was a shining example of housing increment. He pointed out that 40% of their housing budget went towards the upgrading of settlements. He added that the media had most probably been referring to Vlakfontein West which would be entirely made up of RDP housing.

Mr G Schneemann (ANC) said that Cosmos City was near to the city but landowners were stopping the process. He wanted to know if any other land was being found near to the city. He was assured that certain pockets of land had been identified near the city and close to job opportunities.

Mr Lee (DA) requested that the Councillor cease from promoting a specific political party, and was supported by the Committee's chairperson. He then sought clarity regarding the stated backlog of 120 000 units, which he believed was misleading - particularly because given the information of the presentation, he had arrived at a figure closer to a backlog of 550 000 units. He was also concerned that no mention had been made of a special operating account into which the monies from the sale of these units went.

Mr J Maimela (Director: Housing) confirmed that the figure Mr Lee had arrived at was inclusive of 170 115 households living in informal settlements, 108 000 living in backyard shacks, and 145 000 living in council owned housing stock. The backlog of 120 000 was in terms of a waiting list that dealt with people who had invaded land. He said these people became a challenge because they were also linked to subsidies.

Ms D Montsitsi asked that something be done about the very narrow streets in the townships that allowed passage for only one car.

The Chairperson, Ms Z Kota (ANC) wanted to know if an indigent policy had been developed with regard to people that earned within the bracket of R0 - R1 000pm.

Cclr Ralegoma assured the Committee that the City had a good indigent policy in place. He explained that all informal settlements were charged a flat rate which was below what Soweto people were charged. He added that a person who could still not afford this rate had to come forward and show that he was indigent, so that they could get further assistance.

Ms S Ntombela (ANC) asked if there was a rent-to-buy system and wanted an indication of the sizes of the RDP/PHP plots and houses. She also wanted to know what the response was of the people who had originally been recruited to those hostels.

Mr Maimela said that the rent-to-buy was the recommended system [that is, pay rent for 4 years and this aggregated amount gets used as the deposit for the subsequent purchase for the house plus the good record of rental payment allows for a bond to be provided]; the plots ranged between 250m² and 300m², whilst the houses were 36m² . He also explained that they had ongoing engagement with hostel dwellers.

Mr Mabena asked how many women in construction had benefited.

Mr Schneemann encouraged the City of Joburg to make a concerted effort in optimally utilising the PHP.

Cclr Ralegoma cited the Ivory Park women as leading amongst women that had benefited. He added that although they were passionate about the PHP, all they could do was to tighten management. He further added that they would welcome recommendations from the Portfolio Committee.

The Chairperson expressed discontent with the responses about the PHP because the whole purpose was to encourage people to take charge of their lives. She said that they believed that the PHP could be delivered effectively. She added that she had not gotten sufficient clarity from the response about Vlakfontein.

Mr Maimela explained that the Vlakfontein issue highlighted by the media pertained to the Vlakfontein West tender process. He clarified that the City of Joburg, contrary to media reports, was appointed as a developer and had already signed a contract. They were now preparing to go out for tender for full essential services.

In response to Mr Mabena's concern about using other companies as against using the Council, it was explained that the companies that were going to be used were council-created companies, and council-funded implementing agents.

City of Tshwane
The presentation was led by Mr N Pillay who pointed out that the as a metro with an area of 34000km², the City of Tshwane serviced two provinces, Gauteng and the North West. The briefing was based on housing challenges, their impact and how they would deal with them. Mr Pillay highlighted that the informal settlement in Centurion was growing at the fast rate of 23% per month, the population predominately coming from the KwaNdebele region. They shared the high migration problems shared by the City of Joburg, and suggested that they look at the issue as a cluster when trying to solve it. The Tshwane housing backlog was estimated around 129 000.

Mr Pillay pointed out that although they had formed their own Housing Department, it still needed to be capacitated. The support that they were giving to the PHP included pushing for the fast delivery of good quality housing. He explained that the yardstick used was the tenure of site [occupation of site first in a shack and then build formal house on site]; and as a City they had trained people in related house-building skills and internally in procurement courses. He added that their municipalities had technical teams to look at quality.

Mr Dhlamini raised concerns that they were face with challenges from private farmers that invited people to squat on their land. When this happened, the farmers would in turn ask the Council to buy the land at exorbitant amounts.

Discussion
Mr Schneemann asked, with regard to the Crocodile River evictions, what steps were being taken to try and discourage land owners.

Mr Pillay said that they had appealed to land owners not to evict people , but rather to make land available. Farmers were evicting people with the hope that Tshwane would intervene, pay exorbitant rent for land from them, or buy the land at over-priced amounts. He added that despite this there were continual engagements with the landowners.

Ms Ramkaba-Lesiea (ANC) asked if, in view of the PHP being a slow process, any thought had been given to using this to heed the President's call to volunteerism because communities could get involved.

Mr Dhlamini said the PHP was not to linked to beneficiaries but to any movement within the community. He confirmed that the community, particularly pensioners, wanted to play a significant role. He added that evictions were not only happening in Crocodile River, but in other areas such as Zaamfontein.

Mr Lee asked about the progress being made on transferring the old Bophuthatswana government's property.

Mr Pillay explained that the issue had not been completely resolved. There was still a demarcation process over land that they felt belonged to Tshwane but the North West disputed this. He added that despite the legal problem that they were engaged in, Tshwane had taken responsibility for the services because of the poor state of the towns and township, but they as City of Tshwane, have said they would not stand in for the loans including the ones attached to pension funds, without any documents certifying that the area would fully fall under Tshwane. Mr Dhlamini added that the North West Housing Co-operation department was poorly administered and that they would have to take over to sort out the problems being experienced.

Mr Mabena was concerned about Atteridgeville West being said to have been built on dangerous planes. The explanation given was that the place had been an informal settlement area for twenty years. Extension seven with 25000 housing units took seven years to complete in an area that is today fully serviced with electricity, water and sanitation. However, during the Second World War, most parts of the area were used as arms cache dumps and the Defence force has no logistics maps available to anybody for digging up these arms. Some of these arms have resurfaced, but what was now happening, was that residents were digging for and selling the World War II findings. Mr Pillay assured the committee that they were going to try and relocate people to safer places.

The Chairperson asked what was being done to empower women contractors. Mr Mabena cautioned the City of Tshwane representatives saying that woman empowerment was not the same thing as woman employment. He added that there were women contractors called The Big Five in Soshanguve.

Mr Dhlamini acknowledged that there was a problem with the PHP because within the PHP a contractor had to be appointed and the women were not empowered but merely employed as workers.

In answer to the Chair asking about the Tshwane Indigent Policy, Mr Pillay detailed the complete package for indigent persons. The policy included reduced tariffs, 50kw free electricity, and where people had already accrued arears these had been written off. This was backed with a written agreement to ensure that the person would not fall back into areas.

Mr Schneemann asked whether the Tshwane Housing Department felt there was anything the Portfolio Committee could do about the Honeydew shack/farm issue.

Mr Dhlamini acknowledged that that was a very problematic area for them, and would appreciate any assistance in the matter.

The Chairperson suggested that the Portfolio Committees on Land Affairs, Local Government and Housing could meet to discuss some of these problems and try to come up with possible solutions.

Mr Mabena requested that Tshwane forward to the committee any statistics on child headed households in Tshwane. The response was that the Social Development Department was undertaking that research and could provide that information to the Committee.

City of Cape Town
Mr Bedderson outlined the current housing situation and the targeted communities. He explained that they saw housing as a developmental role and the major part of their core business being to obtain land for the development of new housing, and managing and controlling informal settlements. They were still negotiating the transfer of the Provincial Housing Development Board (PHDP) land to the City. The various housing options and delivery approaches were discussed in depth. This included visuals of 30m² houses, semi detached houses, adjoined houses that shared important services and saved land, and single site and plot houses. Highlighted was the building or organising of the building of houses by beneficiaries using the Traditional PHP and experimenting with the Managed PHP to assure good quality projects. The traditional PHP was said to be a slow form of delivery better suited where one had a serviced site. Moving people out of areas of risk such as those that got flooded in winter or were situated under electricity pylons was described as almost futile despite monitoring. When communities were moved out to serviced areas, informal sales of the shack and site to new occupants took place or other people moved in to occupy the area.

Mr Bedderson described Council-owned flats as not cost effective.

Mr Bedderson felt that amongst the major challenges that the Public Housing Directorate faced was the absence of an urbanisation policy. Such a policy was needed to manage influx. He also suggested that other options such as having "reception areas" needed to be looked into.

Some pockets of land were seasonally not suitable for settlement. Informal settlement took place, in the rainy season the areas got flooded and people had to be evacuated and relocated. In the dry season people passed by and identified the same areas as suitable for them to settle on.

The Public Housing Directorate also detailed the various new housing projects and upgrading processes in depth. Highlighted were areas such as Crossroads where community dynamics came into play and hinder the successful completion of projects.

Mr Bedderson explained that Hostels were a grey sector as they had previously been run by the private sector. The City of Cape Town has decided that these would be part of the Public Housing Directorate's (PHD) upgrading projects. The Directorate's intention was to develop 8000 family units over the next ten years. With the hostels the complexity was in getting the actual beneficiary - the person who has been there the longest.

Mr Bedderson's main concern was that it seemed that the backlog would never be reduced. With reference to the Grootboom Judgement, he felt that the PHD was operating on an unfunded mandate because the sharing of responsibilities between the different spheres of government was not clear.

Discussion
Mr Bedderson was asked to comment on the "reception area" and how he saw it fitting into an urbanisation area. He said it would be a mechanism that they could use to direct people coming in from other provinces to "reception areas" in date order, before taking them to some form of housing. This would allow the Directorate time to plan and relocate them to available areas. He believed that this holding area would curb the densification process since the influx to Cape Town was in the region of 20 000 families per annum.

Mr Lee pointed out with concern that Mr Bedderson, even as a technocrat, had made no mention about plans regarding District Six.

Mr Bedderson said in 1996, political masters had suggested that the beneficiaries be compensated, and many people staked claims. Another Directorate official added that a Cape Town Community Trust had been set up to pay out the beneficiaries. The amount of R1.6 million was handed over to the District Six Trust that was driving the process. His concern was that to date the City of Cape Town had not received a pilot plan nor a business plan from the Trust. They were keeping a low profile and the project was being driven as a Land Affairs restitution process.

Ms Ramkaba-Lesiea asked what was being done about the widows and divorced women that as victims of apartheid had been forced to settle in backyards. Her concern was new arrivals were being catered for and these "back-yarders" were being neglected. She added that the Crossroad houses that had been left empty were tiny with no gardening space or room for children to play.

The Committee was told that the PHD was busy devising a five year strategy that would concentrate on informal settlement including "back-yarders". With reference to the small plot sizes in Crossroads, Mr Bedderson's explanation was that raw land in Cape Town cost 10 times the price it cost in Jo'burg, and 14 times the price it cost in Durban. Winter floods flooded half of the Cape Flats each year. Environmentalists have said that the water needed to be retained in ponds. In summer the area looks like vacant land. He added that if you looked for confined land in, for example, the Crossroads, conflicts emerged.

Mr Schneemann was concerned about the way that reception areas had been planned He felt that the areas they could actually have the opposite effect and encourage people to move to Cape Town. Responding to Mr Bedderson's comment that the lack of the much needed urban strategy for big cities was perhaps the National intention for people to move to the cities, he added that part of Government's plan was to develop rural areas, and make rural areas economically viable so as not to have people move to the cities.

The Chairperson felt that efforts to keep people out of areas not suitable for settlement were half hearted. She felt that fences could be put up once people had been relocated from particular areas. She commented that she was under the impression that a moratorium had been issued on evictions, yet she was now receiving different signals when she heard about evictions in Hout Bay.

Mr Bedderson explained that this matter was about 2600 families residing at Imizamoyethu on a small piece that could only cater for 550 families. He said these people needed to be relocated for their own safety, yet they were unwilling, rather they kept on brining in more people.

Mr Lee asked whether or not the Cape Town's proposed idea to build a Berlin wall around Wallacedene had been absconded. The idea had been absconded.

The representatives from Joburg advised Cape Town against Reception Areas saying that they had tried transit Camps which were similar, and they had turned out to be very problematic. City of Tshwane agreed and added that these camps often lead to permanency.

The Chairperson on behalf of the Committee than the three Metros, saying progressive provision of houses for the people of South Africa both critical and essential. She added that their new ideas towards achieving this needed to be teased out further.

The meeting was adjourned