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Date: 11/02/2004
Source: Ministry of Housing
Title: B Mabandla: Norwegian National Conference for CSD-12, Norway


ADDRESS BY MRS B MABANDLA, SOUTH AFRICAN MINISTER OF HOUSING, TO THE NORWEGIAN NATIONAL CONFERENCE FOR CSD-12 , 11 February 2004

THE CHALLENGES OF URBAN POVERTY AND SLUM ERADICATION: HOW SOUTH AFRICA IMPROVED HOUSING CONDITIONS FOR SEVEN MILLION PEOPLE

Chairperson
Honourable Minister Brende, Minister of Environment, and Chair of the Commission of Sustainable Development
Honourable Minister Solberg, Minister of Local Government and Regional Development
Mr Kjorven, State Secretary for the Minister of International Development
Mr Nygaard, Deputy Director-General Ministry of Local Government and Regional Development
Mr Reutersward, Director Global Division UN Habitat
Mr Hilderbrand, Manager Cities Alliance
Secretariat and Member of Task Force 8 on improving the lives of slum dwellers
Mr Durand-Lasserve, Director of Research at the National Centre of Scientific Research in France Mr Lilleholt, Professor, Doctor of Law, University of Bergen
Ms Strand, Director General of Norad
Mr Petersen, Deputy Managing Director FAFO Institute of Applied Social Science
Ms Sommerfeld, Director Norwegian Federation of Co-operative Housing Associations
Distinguished Delegates

Introduction

I would like to begin by thanking Minister Brende for inviting me to this very important forum where we can share our experiences with you as we learn from international good practice on sustainable human settlements. It is a great privilege for South Africa to be given the opportunity to promote the concept of sustainable human settlements on an international platform in preparation for CSD 12.

Challenges

South Africa has been recently honoured by United Nations (UN) Habitat for providing secure tenure and access to water and sanitation to 1,5 million households thus substantially improving the lives of seven million people living in poverty. Despite successes achieved in providing shelter and laying of a foundation for more habitable and sustainable human settlement, there are a number of issues that require attention. One of the critical issues is that; housing needs to be a catalyst to develop the desired integrated housing environments. Reasons for this have varied from project to project.

A further challenge is the provision of affordable housing credit. Lack of access to housing finance for black low and middle-income earners falling outside of the safety net of the current subsidy also needs to be addressed. Government is, therefore, working with the financial sector to address the need to extend housing credit to low-income households.

Understanding the demand for housing measured, as a backlog is a complex issue. This is driven by both natural population growth and migration. In line with international experience, demand for housing remains high, and continues to outstrip supply. The nature of the demand is also changing. For example, household size has declined significantly. Migration patterns are changing due to the new found freedom of movement for the majority of people seeking perceived and real urban socio-economic opportunities. Overall, this has resulted in the growth of informal settlements.

In urban areas poverty is highly visible yet the challenge of addressing deepening poverty in rural areas remains. This is exacerbated by farm workers being forced off the land and having to search for shelter and livelihoods in small rural towns with declining economic bases.

Transformation of local government and the devolution of functions to this level, where government and civil society can best interact, continues.

The nature of the interventions undertaken to obtain this marvellous conjuncture will vary depending upon the context in which organisations tasked with achieving sustainable human settlements find themselves. In continents or countries with financial and institutional resources the focus may be on restoring natural eco-systems, or seeking new ways to generate new wealth in declining districts, or regions. In countries that are resource poor or are characterised by deep economic inequality, priority of creating sustainable human settlement means meeting the basic needs of people through provision of basic services and amenities in order to improve standards of living. The importance of understanding this difference of interpretation will aid in understanding how the concept of sustainable human settlement is conceptualised in a diverse country such as South Africa. A key dimension of the challenge in the growing gap between the rich and the poor.

South Africa is currently celebrating ten years of democracy, and as part of this celebration is reviewing the programmes that have been undertaken to improve the lives of the majority of people in South Africa. One aspect of this has been to review activities undertaken to provide shelter and improve the sustainability of human settlements.

Since 1994 the Government has aimed to provide basic needs to improve lives of the under-housed communities and to address the dysfunctional nature of South African settlement. Interventions have focused on the provision of adequate shelter, the improvement of human settlement management through integrated service delivery and the promotion of land reform and land use planning.

Provision of Adequate Shelter

A major success in meeting basic needs of South Africa has been the provision of 1.5 million houses that has seen over seven million people, the vast majority of whom had been living in poverty. As part of the housing package beneficiaries have received water, electricity, road access as well as secure tenure. Once constructed the houses have in many cases, provided beneficiaries with the opportunity to consolidate and make additions to their homes.

A further success of the housing programme has been its ability to target and benefit women. Over 50 percent of the housing subsidies approved since 1994 have been allocated to women, with women in three of the poorest provinces of Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal receiving the majority of the subsidies. This success has meant the resource allocation is more evenly spread across the genders.

Key to the success of the Housing Programmes has been the housing subsidy mechanism. This mechanism currently provides R23 100, which is approximately the same amount in Krone, to people earning between R0 and R1500. It also provides smaller assistance packages to those earning between R1 500 and R 3 500. Subsidies are also provided for:

* The disabled and the aged,
* Those who want to construct their own houses through the People's Housing Process,
* Those who want to make additions to their current homes through Consolidation subsidies
* Social housing institutions that want to offer alternative means of holding a place of residence through co-operative and rental, Strong emphasis is placed upon in such institutions on building medium-density residential buildings
* For the redevelopment of hostels used by mine and industrial workers
* People living in rural areas in traditional authority areas

To date the most commonly constructed housing projects have been single unit houses located largely on the urban periphery on sites provided by large developers. The majority of the houses built have been in urban or peri-urban areas where rates of urbanisation have been highest and the need for housing has been greatest. However there is an established subsidy for developing rural housing that provides shelter options in circumstances of poverty. A further reason for the rapid construction of houses is that the programme has been supported by a range of housing institutions that monitor construction, aid beneficiaries with accessing credit and managing debt.

However it has been the willingness of the million and a half households to cooperate with dedicated housing officials at all levels of government that has ensured that housing is delivered.

IMPROVED HUMAN SETTLEMENT MANAGEMENT

The success of the Housing Programme needs to be seen in terms of the other interventions aimed at improving settlement and land management. In terms of settlement management one of the critical actions undertaken has been the consolidation of disparate local authorities in 2000, into 284 new municipalities. Local government is a critical partner in ensuring that settlements are developed in a sustainable manner and that the needs of South Africa's people are met. The critical tool developed by the National Department of Provincial and Local Government to aid local government to undertake their development responsibilities is the Integrated Development Plan, which is better known as an IDP. This tool enables local government to strategically identify and budget for the needs it has in terms of services and infrastructure over a five-year cycle.

Money to meet the budgetary requirements of local government as outlined in the IDP is obtained from a number of sources with funding for housing being accessed through a National Housing Fund, while infrastructure is accessed through a consolidated central fund of the Provincial and Local Government Department. The synergy between these funding elements is achieved through the integrated process.

Certain impoverished areas have, however, required special assistance above and beyond that provided through local government. Following 1994 a number of Special Presidential Projects were launched in specific areas that attempted to coordinate the provision of services, housing, educational facilities, health care, and to aid in securing livelihood strategies and to create employment opportunities. In 2001, a second round of projects was identified under the Urban Renewal Programme (URP) that focused on marginalized urban areas, and the Integrated Sustainable Rural Development Programme (ISRDP) that focused projects in particular rural districts. Though both programmes are only two to three years old there have been successes, such as Alexandra Urban Renewal Node in Johannesburg, where provision of services, infrastructure and low income housing has occurred in close co-operation between local, provincial and national government department involved in a number of sectors.

LAND REFORM AND LAND USE MANAGEMENT

The third critical area that South Africa has focused upon in relation to human settlements has been the attempt to address past inequitable allocations of land. In this regard the Department of Land Affairs has undertaken the Land Restitution and Redistribution Programmes as well as the Land Tenure Reform Programme. The first two programmes have sought to reallocate land, while the land tenure reform programme has attempted to provide security to people living in both rural and urban areas. In this regard the allocation of titles to housing beneficiaries has been a success story, as people's rights to a place to call their own have been secured. With regard to improving settlements through land redistribution, the Land for Agriculture Development Programme (LRAD) has had success in providing a grant of R20 000 to beneficiaries for the purpose of purchasing agricultural land with a view to undertaking small scale stock or crop farming. This programme is relatively new but is likely to expand in the future.

GOING FORWARD

South Africa

Given successes experienced and challenges faced over the past ten years in providing housing to South Africa's people, the Department of Housing has taken stock of its position and is seeking ways to improve on past successes and meet its current challenges.

An important action in this regard is to ensure that the goal, set by the Department of Housing, of creating sustainable human settlements in South Africa is achieved. This objective enhances the goal set in the first ten years of Democracy as it focuses on improving the quality of both the house provided and the quality of the broader settlement environment. The subsidy will remain an important mechanism by which beneficiaries receive housing assistance. We will continue targeting the poorest of the poor. As government strengthens we are committed to improving the lives of our people in informal settlements. We will be developing a national strategy in this regard. Our programme will seek to meet the millennium development goals and make a significant contribution to the reduction of 100 million slum dwellers worldwide by 2015/ 2020.

This approach will form part of the Department's goal of creating sustainable human settlement. A goal that will require a far more holistic perspective of the housing sector in South Africa, that not only includes informal settlements and subsidy based housing.

Besides focusing on improving the physical nature of settlements the Department will also take broader cross cutting issues into account.

Africa

The experiences of South Africa in dealing with poverty are not unique and have resonance with other African countries dealing with similar development issues in a rapidly expanding urban landscape. The rate of urbanisation in Africa is at an average of four percent per annum. However, this urbanisation is not accompanied by sustainable economic growth, which means that populations are more insecure and hence more likely to move to find economic opportunities. The one regional mechanism to meet the challenge of bringing socio-economic change to Africa is the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD), the initiative of the African Union that seeks to improve governance, human rights and to stimulate economic development on the continent. NEPAD is in the process of developing plans to significantly address the issues of sustainable human settlement, which is central to providing the platform from which further economic and social reform can be built. We are working closely with the NEPAD secretariat in this regard.

African Cities acknowledge the importance of urban interventions in ensuring socio-economic development on the continent. It is my belief that the process and events leading up to CSD 12 will contribute and urge us forward in solidarity with developing countries. CSD 12 will be an important platform for us to move forward.

It is in this vein that I thank Norway for providing South Africa the opportunity to share her experience; South Africa will be a partner in making CSD 12 being a success.

Thank you.

Issued by Department of Housing
11 February 2004
Source: Department of Housing (http://www.housing.gov.za)

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