Hopes in hell? - South African housing

Architectural Review, The, March, 1995 by Rodney Harber

Housing is the single most important issue confronting the new political administration. The inequalities and iniquities of the past have left a bitter legacy that will take decades to unravel. Rodney Harber looks at recent strategies for reconstruction and considers an uncertain future.

During the heyday of apartheid, segregated townships were provided for those able to penetrate the barrier of 'influx control' - a set of political hurdles created to limit urbanisation to workers or registered 'work seekers', thereby maintaining the status quo. Row upon row of identical houses were arranged into low density neighbourhood units of prevailing town-planning theory with primary schools, small shops and bare public open spaces - a motorised model for marginalised pedestrians.

As the pressure for social transformation mounted, more people managed to respond to the natural forces of urbanisation, and escape rural poverty. This led to severe overcrowding in small houses and subsequent infill in the form of backyard shacks. Occupational density is a reliable indicator of housing stress. According to the World Bank(1) whites enjoyed 33 [m.sup.2] per person with 4-5 [m.sup.2] for blacks. When influx control was withdrawn this trickle turned into a flood. Major cities doubled their population in a decade and informal trading proliferated as the true economic realities became apparent.

Dense informal settlements with no services sprang up on the edges of cities and on marginalised land. At Bester's Camp, on steep former cane fields outside Durban, the average site size is as small as 106 [m.sup.2], with some as small as 35 [m.sup.2]. One quarter of the residents are squeezed into 2 [m.sup.2] per person or less.(2) Inspectors faced with this sea of branches, mud infill, plastic and packing cases acknowledged their impotence by designating these areas ZEBRA - Zero Based Building Regulation Area. Yet an alternative housing model has taken shape. At densities of at least 60 dwelling units/ha, shacks are clustered along contours with no consideration being given to the public domain. No schools and services exist apart from ramshackle stalls facing onto an area used by taxis pulling off the major roads, which lead to perceived opportunities of distant city centres. These unplanned pockets have no concept of the future but are ironically very efficient due to their densities and rational structure. Some have subsequently been upgraded in situ by non-government organisations (NGO) controlling stormwater, introducing electricity and building pit lavatories and water kiosks. The former product orientated approach used by developers based on 'Service, Build and Occupy' was reversed into a process of 'Occupy, Build and Service'.

According to the recent White Paper(3) on housing, 61 per cent of South African families now live in informal houses or share formal homes. As the purse shrank, the formal sector responded by literally cutting corners. Whole chunks of structures were omitted to produce 'starter units', 'wet cores' and other stunted versions of homes. The Independent Development Trust was established to stimulate housing and social development but, due to a Eurocentric obsession with ablution, it focused on providing rows of pit lavatories on vacant land. The responsibility to the urban environment was sidestepped and further urban sprawl resulted. Housing had been turned into a successful political weapon as residents were mobilised to demand representative administration by withholding rent and service payments. An initiative by the private sector to step in and build homes also faltered due to high costs and bond boycotts.

Shortly after the release of Nelson Mandela, the housing policy of the former administration was in disarray. Bogged down by a multiplicity of legislation from all its ethnic groupings, more than 30 official commissions into housing had, over two decades, produced few tangible results. In 1992 Barely 1500(4) houses were built by the numerous government agencies. During the same year the National Housing Forum was instituted from government, political and private sector groupings to debate and agree on a new democratic housing strategy and policy. Study groups were formed to investigate the whole range of housing issues, from rationalising existing hostel accommodation to restructuring the built environment. One thrust was a one-off subsidy for the homeless of [pounds]2275, for families earning less than [pounds]400 per month.

Posters for the first free elections promised 'Homes for All'. The new Government of National Unity promised one million homes in five years - 330 000 would be needed every year for the next decade to catch up with the backlog and provide for natural growth. Meanwhile the South African city was being inverted as the poor, taking advantage of legal relaxations started to jockey for positions nearer the centre of town. Road reserves, sites set aside for schools, public open space, and even pavements, became fair game. Yet theorists have recognised the need to allow South African cities to become much denser and more efficient. Apart from rationalising wasteful transport, more street surveillance would make them much safer. A wider range of housing delivery systems is being considered, from in situ upgrading to multi-storey rented accommodation along 'mixed-use activity corridors'.