“Urbanisation over the last four decades has
created highly segregated and unequal cities.
Neoliberal policies, through international
trade agreements, have weakened rural and agrarian societies and created a strong pull
factor to the cities, leading to a shelter
crisis within cities. The burgeoning of
informal settlements and slums was the people’s response to survival in search of
livelihoods and social services. In South Africa, the apartheid urban form has exacerbated poverty by the location of informal settlements on the urban edge rather
than in the centre of the city. The traditional response has been to strengthen
National, Provincial and Local government to address informal settlements through
eradication of slums, and housing policy instruments like the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP). The RDP programme, later renamed Breaking New Ground (BNG) provides housing for the poorest of poor earning under R3,500 per month. This top down developer driven implementation
strategy combined with poor land selection
has led to poorly built houses with a lack
of ownership from the residents. More
recently, the Upgrading of the Informal Settlements Programme (UISP) has adopted a
more nuanced incremental and in-situ approach
to development. However, even the UISP policy
is being implemented on greenfield rather than brownfield sites resulting in relocation
of residents to alternative land (potentially
outside the city).”
