Human Settlements
What measures his Department has put in place in the past nine years to address the issue of the increasing number of dwellings in informal settlements in the province?
The General Household Survey published by Stats SA in 2016 showed that the percentage of households living in informal settlements has slightly dropped from 13.6% to 13.1% between 2002 and 2014. The number of people living in informal settlements remains high due to urbanization, migration, and historical exclusionary practices (which manifest spatially, socially and economically). Household sizes have also become smaller since the advent of the housing subsidy programme.
According to my department’s assessment, the limited government resources available for housing provision and for upgrading of informal settlements, calls for a shift in the delivery approach. The major focus should be on improving living conditions of people living in informal settlements. The shift is therefore to prioritize delivery of basic municipal services and other government services rather than one that ends in a top structure for each household. This approach is detailed in the Western Cape’s Informal Settlement Support Programme (ISSP) 2016, to which the Provincial Government subscribes. The approach entails classifying all informal settlements in the Western Cape to determine whether settlements should be relocated immediately as they pose a danger to the citizens, be given temporary interim services or remain in place and be given final services, and ultimately individual services.
The idea is to supply as many informal settlement dwellers with basic municipal services as quickly as possible.
Since 2009 my department delivered 187 107 housing opportunities of which 36 822 were done through the Upgrading of Informal Settlement Programme (UISP).
It should be noted that many informal settlement dwellers have also been accommodated in Greenfields developments and not only via the UISP.
In addition to this, a special program was initiated in 2011/12 financial year called “Access to Basic Service” (ABS). This was done to improve provisioning of water and sanitation to an acceptable standard in informal settlements.
Since the completion of the Rapid Appraisal of non-metro areas, 60 informal settlements have been prioritized for upgrading. In addition to this eight (8) Non-Governmental Organizations were appointed to assist with community mobilization and facilitation of participatory planning for upgrading of informal settlements.
The ISSP is currently been mainstreamed into our operations providing a clear roadmap of how to address the challenges collectively with the communities involved. We believe that this paradigm shift will allow people to live in dignified spaces.
