Cape Town – Informal Human Settlements. Shack towns are very dense settlements comprising communities housed in self constructed shelters under conditions of informal land tenure, a dense proliferation of small, make-shift shelters built from diverse materials, this populace pressure causes degradation of the local ecosystem and produces severe social and health problems.
Water is obtained from communal taps and toilet facilities range from buckets to pit latrines. These areas are prone to flooding and fires; killing 358 people mostly children, maiming another 90 for life and displacing 237,412 humans in the past decade, affecting 68,710 dwellings in settlements..
The Western Cape has a Tuberculosis (TB / MDR-TB / XDR-TB) and HIV/AIDS pandemic which is exacerbated by the conditions in these habitat environments. Informal human settlements occur when administration and planning fails.
Clearly 150,000 housing units were NOT delivered in the Western Cape last year, nor 110,000 units in the past two years]
The Western Cape department of human settlements said it was "unfortunate" that the national department had not waited for the December performance and expenditure figures, due on Friday, before issuing its statement.
Mayor Patricia de Lille increases previous mayors' housing backlog by 116,000 from previous figure of 350,000 10 months ago to 466,000. {Where did the other 100,000 unaccounted for migrants seeking housing come from?}
InternAfrica would like to point out:
Http://www.InternAfrica.org http://InternAfrica.blogspot.com/
A not for profit organisation which aims to educate and ensure Africans the right to dignity and adequate housing through secure ecologically sustainable development and use of natural resources, while promoting justifiable economic and social development.
View the informal human settlements of Cape Town.
View in Google Earth * View in Google Maps
Another view from Mapland
Water is obtained from communal taps and toilet facilities range from buckets to pit latrines. These areas are prone to flooding and fires; killing 358 people mostly children, maiming another 90 for life and displacing 237,412 humans in the past decade, affecting 68,710 dwellings in settlements..
The Western Cape has a Tuberculosis (TB / MDR-TB / XDR-TB) and HIV/AIDS pandemic which is exacerbated by the conditions in these habitat environments. Informal human settlements occur when administration and planning fails.
The improvement of living conditions in informal settlements is imperative to a functional society. "We also have a housing waiting list of about 460,000 and 222 informal settlements around the city (150,000 shacks compared with 28,000 in 1994), and a growing crime rate," Cape Town Mayor - Helen Zille. April 10 2008
The province has a housing shortage of nearly 500,000 units. Western Cape Housing MEC Bonginkhosi Madikizela has warned if something drastic is not done it could take 28 years to address the housing backlog in the province. Western Cape Housing MEC Bonginkhosi Madikizela -Oct 14 2009
The housing situation in the Mother City is so bad that people who are currently on waiting lists for houses will stay on those lists for another 15 to 20 years...
"If one takes into account that 350,000 houses are needed, the properties would stretch from Cape Town to Malmesbury.
"Our infrastructure can't handle this."
There also isn't enough money for brick houses.
"Government should openly and honestly admit to the people that it can't afford properties with brick houses.
"We have to consider what we can afford and for that reason we have to think about servicing properties rather than building houses on properties," said Plato.
Cape Town Mayor - Dan Plato 20/11/2010[InternAfrica would like to point out the 150,000 reduction in housing demand from last year to this; either depicting a misunderstanding of the demand, or figures, or the mayor has no clue as to what is going on in his city.
Clearly 150,000 housing units were NOT delivered in the Western Cape last year, nor 110,000 units in the past two years]
The Western Cape department of human settlements said it was "unfortunate" that the national department had not waited for the December performance and expenditure figures, due on Friday, before issuing its statement.
"The picture has improved dramatically in the Western Cape since National Minister Tokyo Sexwale raised his concerns last November," it said in a statement...
According to preliminary figures, the department serviced 8,007 sites and built 8,218 houses. - Timeslive
[That would be 16,225 deliverables in the past year Mayor: - some 133,775 short of what you think it is] Good thing someone is joining the dots hey Helen...?
Mayor Patricia de Lille increases previous mayors' housing backlog by 116,000 from previous figure of 350,000 10 months ago to 466,000. {Where did the other 100,000 unaccounted for migrants seeking housing come from?}
There were 450,000 households on the housing backlog and, due to urbanisation, 16,000 houses were added to that figure by people who moved to Cape Town.Cape Town Mayor Patricia de Lille - 6/09/2011
InternAfrica would like to point out:
- There is a reduction of 34,000 housing backlog from the Western Cape Human Settlements Bonginkhosi Madikizela's figures from 3 years ago.
- By the mayor's calculations it would take 17 years of Human Settlements budget just to accommodate the unaccounted for backlog revision figure. Taking us up too 2028, without having dealt with any future migration or the previous backlog. National Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale wants the Human Settlement backlog dealt with by 2030. Leaving two years to house a backlog that by this stage will be 622,000. MDG promises were to deal with this by 2014.
"There is backlog of 500,000 houses in the Western Cape. The people getting houses today belong to the lucky few who are getting houses. It is very important for people who get houses to take responsibility to maintain the houses, to fix the door if they are broken and the roof if its leaking. Once you become a homeowner, you must take responsibility to maintain the houses. Its no longer the responsibility of the government." - Western Cape Minister of Human Settlements Bonginkhosi Madikizela - 7 Oct 2011InternAfrica would like to point out that the provincial Minister of Human Settlements is reporting the EXACT same housing backlog figure he reported 2 years ago to the week. Clearly ignoring the migratory influx, school leavers and general increase in human settlement demand. InternAfrica makes the allegation that the Minister does not know what the Human Settlement requirement is in the Western Cape and therefor is incapable of dealing with the Human Settlement crisis in the Western Cape.
"There were about 400,000 households in Cape Town that needed adequate housing, and this figure increased by between 16,000 and 18,000 households a year." - Gregory Goodwin, the city of Cape Town's head of sub-councils and area co-ordination for human settlements Jan 20 2012InternAfrica would like to point out that the head of sub-councils and area co-ordination for Human Settlements, is now reporting a backlog of 100,000 less units in a court of law than the human settlements minister Bonginkhosi Madikizela pointed out just 4 months ago. (Did the City of Cape Town deliver 100,000 units in the past four months or is this affidavit reflecting a mistruth / lie / or do they just not know?)
".. De Lille promised the 340 beneficiaries of the new project that their houses would be ready within 12 months, as scheduled.
De Lille said the city had managed to bring down the housing backlog from 400,000 to 258,000." - Feb 13 2015 Patricia De Lille Cape Town MayorInternAfrica would like to note the sudden delivery of 193,000 housing units since Jan 2012. We are sure that an audit would prove 193,000 housing units were delivered, especially when you can see it's takes 12 months to build 340 homes...
On Average each shack is home to 3,4 human beings.
Http://www.InternAfrica.org http://InternAfrica.blogspot.com/
A not for profit organisation which aims to educate and ensure Africans the right to dignity and adequate housing through secure ecologically sustainable development and use of natural resources, while promoting justifiable economic and social development.
View the informal human settlements of Cape Town.
View in Google Earth * View in Google Maps Another view from Mapland
