Durban - Unemployed and low-income earners, who have applied and not yet received RDP homes, are questioning the credibility of the government’s promises of free housing.
They say they have been waiting far too long, with some believing corrupt officials are being bribed and are allocating houses to unworthy recipients.
As a double edge sword, the housing backlog is sitting at around 700 000, which means the poorest of the poor may not be alive to experience the joy of becoming homeowners.
“We believe houses are sold in broad daylight by ward councillors and officials to those who have money.
"The allocation process is unfair and leaves those who are deserving of houses out of the process,” said Thapelo Mohapi, the general secretary of the shack dwellers movement, Abahlali baseMjondolo.
He said there was no housing list and this opened up for corruption to take place.
To prevent this from continuing, Mohapi advised that there needed to be meaningful engagement with beneficiaries.
The DA’s spokesperson for human settlements, MPP George Mari, said the province’s RDP housing backlog was estimated at 742 019, with KZN having the second highest backlog in the country.
“It would take 80 to 100 years to deal with the current backlog,” said Mari.
“Ten years ago, the department was building 10 000 houses per annum. This has now dropped to around 1 800 per annum. Availability has therefore reached a critical point.”
He said there were about 590 informal settlements in the city and a backlog in the metro of some 400 000 houses.
“The root of the problem is poor management on the part of the department. Funding is also an issue.”
Speaking about Phoenix, he said MEC Ravi Pillay, of the Department of Human Settlements and Public Works, visited before the 2014 national elections and promised 500 low-cost houses.
“This has not happened to date.”
But Mari firmly believes the DA’s housing policy would be a step in the right direction.
“Our human settlements policy has a number of distinguishing characteristics. We believe public housing options should make greater use of the energies and commitment of the poor, rather than seeing them as passive recipients.
“The DA envisages a future in which we overcome the spatial legacy of apartheid, where the urban poor live closer to work opportunities, where they regard their properties as the fruits of their own labour rather than gifts from the State, where amenities such as schools and clinics are readily accessible, and where communities are characterised by a mix of incomes and housing types.”
He added that there could be faster progress in addressing the housing backlog if the private sector had played a bigger role.
“They would be able to develop innovative models for housing delivery and affordable integrated housing developments.”
Pillay told POST that KZN had been the best performing province in housing delivery for four consecutive years and that they would continue to work to achieve the best value for the limited resources available.
“We currently achieve approximately 25 000 housing opportunities each year in the province as a whole, but our backlogs are huge,” Pillay admitted.
He said people must and should have hope.
“We are developing new rules on allocation policy and prioritisation in regard to RDP or Breaking New Ground houses as we now call them. We are also aggressively pursuing new instruments in relation to rental, affordable housing for the gap market and serviced sites where people can build their own homes.”
The department’s media liaison officer in KZN, Mbulelo Baloyi, said since 1994, close to 1 million homes have been built in the province in areas, including Welbedacht East, Shallcross and Savannah Park in Chatsworth. Further homes, he added, were built in Mkhumbane, Bonella, Nsimbini and Ridge View in Cato Manor and in Waterloo, Parkgate and Ottawa in Verulam.
The Cornubia integrated human settlement, near Phoenix, also has extensive free housing.
But the current housing background is around 700 000 units - of which more than 400 000 is a backlog of the eThekwini Municipality.
“To wipe out the waiting list, it would take the department about 40 years,” said Baloyi, who added there was “no formalised list per se”.
He said the protocol to allocation in recent years was for a beneficiaries list to be compiled on a project basis.
“Once the project has been approved, and an implementing agent (contractor) is appointed, one of the many tasks is to set up a social compact of stakeholders in the project area.”
This project steering committee, said Baloyi, should include the ward councillor, members of the ward committee and other stakeholders.
Their task is to assess those who were most deserving and to ensure the relevant criteria is met.
Baloyi said allocations “could be informed” by the practical challenges of a Municipal Housing Delivery Plan.
“For example, the need to urgently move certain people because they are living in a space required for roads or water or sewer lines or sometimes to unlock development in a currently congested area.”
On allegations that recipients are selling or renting their RDP homes, he said the department would request the municipality intervene.
“The department reserves the right to take back the house from a beneficiary if she or he rents it out as that on its own indicates that he or she did not need the house.”