Cape Town housing crisis reaches new heights

Cape Town housing crisis reaches new heights

Cape Town is a city where hundreds of thousands of people do not have proper homes and have little prospect of getting them, the Western Cape government says.They are young, unemployed and poor, and the situation is worse by the year, according to the province's housing plan, presented to the legislature's housing portfolio committee on Tuesday.Some of the shocking points which emerged from housing applications were:
With an annual growth rate of only one percent, the city's housing backlog was expected to reach 460 000 by 2020.
'We do not want to create an impression there is an absolute lack of capacity'
If R1-billion was spent every year on building houses, the demand for formal housing would only be met by 2033.
If R500-million was spent annually, the demand for site and services only would be met by 2017.

Fifty-one percent of applicants lived in shacks, 31 percent in backyards and 12 percent shared homes with other people.
Of the applicants, 79 percent earned less than R1 500 per month and 18 percent between R1 500 and R3 500.
Most housing applicants - 60 percent - were aged between 21 and 40, and 31 percent had one dependant and 19 percent two or more.
Sixty-three percent were unemployed.
A huge majority - 93 percent - did not indicate the type of dwelling they wanted.This information helped to give the provincial government an idea about what was needed to address the backlog, Manny Sotumi, provincial chief director for planning services, said."All this pertains to the metro which absorbs 70 percent of our grand funding - so it is telling as to the patterns that exist in the city and the province as a whole. A large proportion live in backyards and as such, our plan and strategy is to address that head on. "The largest chunk without dependants are very young and people will have children. This is a growing population and we need to tailor for it accordingly."We're using the total of 360 000 (applicants). We know it verges on the 400 000 mark, but if we look at one-percent growth year on year, we're looking at a backlog of over a million by 2040 - if we don't seek to deal with the issues," Sotumi said. At a cost of R13 500 per site, the plan showed that if site and services were funded to the tune of R2-billion per year, this backlog would be wiped out by 2018. If houses, at R56 000 per site, were built and R900-million spent annually, applicants' demand for state-built houses would be met by 2012.While on site arrangements are encouraged, the plan is aimed at housing people close to where they work and to reduce commuting times. No deadline was given, but projects currently under way will result in construction of more than 12 000 houses. They include 6 242 in Delft, 2 800 in Belhar, 1 500 near Blue Downs and 650 in Ilitha Park in Khayelitsha."This is looking primarily at the metro since it absorbs most of our resources, although the rest of the province is also looked at," Sotumi said.Other projects expected to start over the next three years would build a further 6 347 houses in areas such as Grassy Park, Eerste River, Zeekoevlei, Pelican Park and Khayelitsha. "(In) the year 2008/09, we're looking at the possibility of releasing some 9 472 hectares of land. This does not mean we will have homes in that year. We will release the land, do the planning and then start construction as rapidly as possible," he said.Portfolio committee members asked if audits were done of available land, whether the province had the capacity to build so many houses, if contractors were suitable and if women and youth empowerment was considered.Local Government and Housing MEC Richard Dyantyi said a capacity audit was done in all municipalities in 2005."Key issues came up. We've found areas lacking also impact on housing delivery - whether it is engineering, project management and so on. As a result, we looked at shared services. Soon we're going to the executive for a report that will help us beef up capacity," he said.Dyantyi's head of department, Shanaaz Majiet, said: "One of the biggest weaknesses in some municipalities is contract management and project management. Another is the quality of monitoring on site. "We do not want to create an impression there is an absolute lack of capacity because that would not be true, but we've got a very good sense of what kind of support is needed."

IOL: Cape shacklands mushroom to 240

IOL: Cape shacklands mushroom to 240

The number of informal settlements in the City of Cape Town has mushroomed to 240, with more than half a million people crammed into about 110 000 self-made shacks.The number of shacks is a 10 percent increase since 2005.And of the 240 settlements, only 89 can be upgraded into formal housing.This is the stark reality of the challenge facing the city council as it tackles the housing backlog of almost 400 000 desperately needed homes.The city council is working on a plan of action to deliver the most-needed services to all the in-formal settlements within its municipal boundaries.
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The integrated plan is being led by senior city housing official Hans Smit. "The plan will carry the details of every informal settlement, what needs to be upgraded, what can be upgraded, et cetera," he explained. Mayor Helen Zille said that next to every recorded priority needed for every informal settlement would be a number showing where that venue was in the queue for that service. "So we'll know exactly where we stand with every informal settlement," she said.Smit said he believed the research would show that the city would need a minimum of around 500 hectares of available land on which to build the backlog of houses.This figure was derived by looking at which informal settlements were on unsuitable ground, such as near electrical pylons, on flood plains or where the current density of shacks is more dense than any future formal housing.An example of this is Enkanini in eastern Khayelitsha, bordering Baden Powell Drive near Monwabisi. About 10 000 shacks have been erected there in the past two to three years but there will only be room to build 5 000 formal houses. Other major informal settlements are Imizamo Yethu in Hout Bay, Masiphumelele near Kommetjie and Crossroads.Smit said typical density for low-cost housing was 60 to 70 per hectare. A Cape Argus visit to Enkanini revealed desperate poverty and appalling living conditions.In response, the mayor said: "People do not understand the extent of the challenge."Zille alleged that Enkanini had come to be populated after a "mass emigration" from the Eastern Cape a few years ago and that the ANC had not stopped this because it was "useful electorally" as the new voters bolstered the ANC's support.The ANC's Garth Strachan described the situation as "shocking and unacceptable", but denied that the settlement was "somehow condoned in return for votes". "The appalling poverty and social degradation of Enkanini is mirrored in similar conditions in many other informal settlements in Cape Town."There should be multi-government co-operation to alleviate (their) plight," Strachan said.He said: "The provincial government's Growth and Development Strategy seeks to ensure that there is a province-wide plan to marshal resources at all three levels of government to systematically attack poverty and create a trajectory of sustainable growth in the province."

IOL: R58m housing scandal rocks Gauteng

IOL: R58m housing scandal rocks Gauteng

The Gauteng provincial government is considering taking legal action against a construction consortium following the disclosure that, three years after a R58-million tender was awarded, not a single RDP house has been built. The Star has learnt that, in 2004, Bahlodi Consortium was awarded the contract to revitalise Evaton township, south of Johannesburg, where 90 percent of the population earns less than R3 500 a month.Under the plan, RDP (Reconstruction and Development Programme) houses were to be built, with water and sanitation for the township's 200 000 residents, along with new roads and pavements, as part of the upgrading of infrastructure.
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A sum of R58-million was awarded to what was then called the Evaton Urban Renewal Project.
'I just cross the road and dump it in the veld'Three years later, however, it transpires that there is little to show for the millions of rands of public money - while the housing list has swollen to 14 000. Today, some of the residents are still using the bucket system, while others have to make do with pit-latrines, despite promises from provincial and national government for many years to eradicate these hazardous systems. Staff at nearby Evaton municipal offices have running water and modern sewerage. Residents living on the east side of Evaton, and who still use buckets, claim there have been no collections since 1975, when the phasing out of the system began. Sello John Makhale shares his dilapidated decades-old house, which he inherited from his parents, with two other people.
He dumps his buckets on a piece of open veld nearby where cattle and sheep graze. "I've used the bucket ever since I got the house from my parents in 1969. We still do not have electricity and we no longer have people collecting our buckets," he said. "So I just cross the road and dump it in the veld." Bethuel Letswalo lives nearby in a crumbling eight-room house shared by four families. There is no electricity or running water. The gable of the single-storey dwelling is caving in, posing a serious threat to its inhabitants. This is compounded by the lack of proper sewerage and drainage. Letswalo said that when the then Sebokeng Town Council stopped collecting buckets all those years ago, he and his fellow tenants decided to close their toilet and dig a pit latrine nearby. They are still using the ad-hoc structure, despite sewerage pipes lying underground that have never been linked to toilets. Three years ago, officials from the Evaton Urban Renewal Project placed the names of the occupants on a housing list. However, no houses have been constructed.When asked why this situation was allowed to develop, Dumisa Qupe, a councillor for the Emfuleni Local Municipality, said the problem was one for the housing department, which awarded the contract to Bahlodi Consortium. While lack of land exacerbated the problem, with large swathes of the area in private hands, it appeared the consortium had provided more human development than financial management. "The construction company trained community liaison officers and members of the Evaton Youth Development Forum. About 40 youths were trained in construction and 20 in organic gardening, while 15 were trained in hydroponic gardening, although six dropped out." While he was unable to say how much money the company had spent since 2004, he confirmed that no houses had been built. According to Victor Moreriane, spokesperson for Housing MEC Nomvula Mokonyane, the Bahlodi contract was terminated in the past few days because it failed to provide "value for their money" in houses, roads, clinics, parks and rejuvenated community centres, as well as sewerage and draining systems. The crisis was brought to light when Bahlodi applied to the department of housing for additional funding of R50-million last month. Mokonyane's team then became aware that the original R58-million had not been spent in accordance with the original plan. "Bahlodi's mandate was to manage and ensure delivery of Evaton business plans on behalf of the department," Moreriane said.According to the brief, the consortium was "to oversee, monitor and regulate performance of lead consultancies, functional teams and contractors involved in the implementation"."A master plan has been drafted by the department. What we need now is high-impact development that prioritises infrastructure upgrading, roads and transport networks, housing and local economic development," said Moreriane, The master plan dwarfs the original urban renewal programme with ambitious integrated planning to transform the area into "an active economic node offering services and facilities, such as taxi ranks, a shopping centre, mixed housing, a town square, sports facilities, an art school, municipal offices and a chapel". This latest three-year plan is budgeted at R900-million.Moreriane said they had set up a monitoring and evaluating unit as well as a risk management unit to oversee the programme.Consortium spokesperson Loretta King refused to comment.
This article was originally published on page 1 of The Star on March 11, 2007

DA WANTS PROBE INTO N2 GATEWAY HOUSING ALLOCATIONS

The Democratic Alliance on Sunday called for an investigation into the allocation of houses at Cape Town's N2 Gateway social housing project because luxury cars were seen parked outside some of the units. "Serious questions need to be asked about the process used to allocate houses in the N2 Gateway development, given the number of luxury German cars that appear to belong to the tenants of these units," DA housing spokesperson Butch Steyn said. "A DA visit suggests that those in real need of state housing have been pushed out of the queue for N2 Gateway houses by the less needy." Steyn said the houses were supposed to be allocated to people who could not otherwise afford formal housing, with the rental being between R300 and R500 a month. During a brief on-site visit to the N2 development, the DA found five luxury BMWs, Audis and Mercedes parked in bays attached to the units, and other new vehicles. Their research put a new BMW 6 series at between R825 000 and R951 000 and repayments on an Audi at R3 370 a month. "If it proves to be true that people with substantial incomes are benefiting from state housing, then the housing allocation process is obviously being abused and housing lists ignored. It is difficult to see how this could be done without the complicity of government officials," Steyn said. Steyn called for a thorough investigation into the allocation process. By July 2006, 22 000 units were to have been completed. But so far, just over 700 have been occupied.

CETA - forensic audit

DID YOU KNOW?

According to a forensic audit performed on the Construction Education and Training Authority (CETA), which was leaked to the DA after CETA refused to hand it over to the Auditor-General (A-G) or make it public, CETA is technically insolvent with a deficit of almost R8 million.

• CETA made double payments to four service providers for learnerships, totalling more than R1.5 million.
• Training providers to CETA submitted irregular claims for learnerships and skills development programmes, possibly amounting to R170.5 million.
• CETA’s executive committee members allegedly have interests in the training-providers that benefit from programmes instituted by CETA, and therefore override rules and regulations. A case in point is that Mashilo Moloto, the son of board chairperson Narius Moloto, received a bursary from CETA’s bursary scheme without declaring the relationship.
• CETA received the most critical evaluation by the A-G for the financial year 2005/06: a disclaimer of opinion.