I now live in Brooklyn, New York, but still regularly visit Cape Town. My most recent visits were in December last year (for one month) and in June this year. On this last trip, my younger brother David and I drove to the township where we grew up. I hadn’t done it in a while. I was struck again by the unemployment, the drug abuse (my brother estimated that at a troubling number of young people in the street where we grew up, are using a local variant of crystal meth, called “tik”). But most of all I was depressed by the housing crisis. The housing stock has been neglected for a decade or so. Overcrowding is rife. Shacks and extensions of either plastic, wood or tin to two-bedroom council houses (built in the 1970s for nuclear families), are a necessity for families with grown children. Many of my peers, now married, divorced, or single parents, still live with their parents through no fault of their own. No new houses have been built.
In March this year, for example, the provincial government announced statistics that would be a scandal in any other democracy. According to the province, by conservative estimates (an annual growth rate of only one percent), Cape Town housing backlog was expected to reach 460 000 by 2020. That same report also suggested that if the city spends R1-billion every year on building houses, “the demand for formal housing would only be met by 2033.” Should the city spend half of that amount every year, the demand for “site and services” (meaning squatter camps with a standpipe and electricity supply) would only be met by 2017. The provincial government controlled by the ANC also announced that 51 percent of housing applicants lived in shacks, 31 percent in backyards and 12 percent shared homes with other people. These people’s positions are made worse by poverty and unemployment. “Of the applicants, 79 percent earned less than R1 500 per month and 18 percent between R1 500 and R3 500.” Finally, the report noted that 63 percent of applicants listed their status as unemployed.
City and provincial officials would be quick to point out that they (well, private firms supported by banks) are building plenty of low cost houses: in Delft, Khayelitsha and near Blue Downs. Anyone with knowledge of Cape Town and its jobs knows this is a daily commute of two hours. It is also de facto racial segregation and class-based apartheid. Apart from privately developed gated communities close to the city, Cape Town has a habit of expanding existing racial ghettoes. And the end of apartheid has not stopped this practice. So another coloured ghetto is built next to an existing one. Another “African” ghetto is constructed next to an existing African ghetto. Urban sprawl appears to be criteria for successful tender. Moreover, what results is that poverty--manifested by unemployment, bad schools, and gangsterism---is trapped in the townships far away from the city center and the op-ed pages of the main newspapers or the talk shows on AM Radio. It’s worth mentioning that police statistics, reportedly, prove that the homicide rate has dropped in almost all urban areas of the country, except the Western Cape and are mostly concentrated in these townships.
- Sean Jacobs - maisonneuve
Certainly the national, provincial and city governments are aware of the housing crisis...
In March this year, for example, the provincial government announced statistics that would be a scandal in any other democracy. According to the province, by conservative estimates (an annual growth rate of only one percent), Cape Town housing backlog was expected to reach 460 000 by 2020. That same report also suggested that if the city spends R1-billion every year on building houses, “the demand for formal housing would only be met by 2033.” Should the city spend half of that amount every year, the demand for “site and services” (meaning squatter camps with a standpipe and electricity supply) would only be met by 2017. The provincial government controlled by the ANC also announced that 51 percent of housing applicants lived in shacks, 31 percent in backyards and 12 percent shared homes with other people. These people’s positions are made worse by poverty and unemployment. “Of the applicants, 79 percent earned less than R1 500 per month and 18 percent between R1 500 and R3 500.” Finally, the report noted that 63 percent of applicants listed their status as unemployed.
City and provincial officials would be quick to point out that they (well, private firms supported by banks) are building plenty of low cost houses: in Delft, Khayelitsha and near Blue Downs. Anyone with knowledge of Cape Town and its jobs knows this is a daily commute of two hours. It is also de facto racial segregation and class-based apartheid. Apart from privately developed gated communities close to the city, Cape Town has a habit of expanding existing racial ghettoes. And the end of apartheid has not stopped this practice. So another coloured ghetto is built next to an existing one. Another “African” ghetto is constructed next to an existing African ghetto. Urban sprawl appears to be criteria for successful tender. Moreover, what results is that poverty--manifested by unemployment, bad schools, and gangsterism---is trapped in the townships far away from the city center and the op-ed pages of the main newspapers or the talk shows on AM Radio. It’s worth mentioning that police statistics, reportedly, prove that the homicide rate has dropped in almost all urban areas of the country, except the Western Cape and are mostly concentrated in these townships.
- Sean Jacobs - maisonneuve
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