Informal settlements are going to be upgraded to the tune of R1.8 billion, receiving water, sanitation, electricity and refuse removal during this financial year - and other provinces have been challenged to follow the Western Cape's example.
The provincial government aims to provide services to 18,000 individual sites across the province during this financial year.
And over the next five years, the province aims to increase services to 31,000 sites.
Premier Helen Zille and Human Settlements MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela announced the plan at a media briefing yesterday.
The department also intends building about 15,000 houses this year to try to eat into the backlog of nearly 500,000 houses.
An estimated 18,000 families migrate to the province, particularly Cape Town, from the rest of South Africa each year.
Constraints to building houses were funds and the availability of well-located land, said Madikizela.
The plan is to focus on "in situ" upgrading at informal settlements; temporary relocation areas and emergency housing programmes; and the provision of services at new sites.
Madikizela said that because the province would constantly be "chasing a moving target", it had decided to "place more emphasis on servicing sites".
"We have a lot of people with no services. We are now upgrading where they are."
The provision of basic services would include building roads, allocating numbers to homes and the provision of sanitation.
It has been estimated that more than 500,000 people in Cape Town do not have access to sanitation.
Zille said there was no way to "extend Cape Town's footprint".
"We would have to increase the city by 50 percent to accommodate people? we have to find ways of densifying and moving up. There is no other way," she said.
Zille's chief advisor, Ryan Coetzee, said their approach was based on "managing urbanisation".
This could lead to further challenges, he said.
"The more successful we are, the more attractive it will be for people to come here, which is not a bad thing. But we will have to try to manage that, when people do arrive."
Zille said: "Those who think that a faster rate of delivery of houses will result in fewer shacks are wrong."
Zille said other provinces, too, needed to "lift their game".
Madikizela's chief of staff, Anthony Hazell, said service sites referred to plots, and the upgrading was related to infrastructure installed on those plots.
At yesterday's briefing, officials also spoke on the challenges around housing allocation.
Zille said there were also cases where people had received houses in other provinces then moved to Cape Town to work here, making their homes in informal settlements.
Madikizela admitted there were challenges with the housing waiting list. But, he said, a private agency was helping the department to assess the credibility of the lists.
- Cape Argus
The provincial government aims to provide services to 18,000 individual sites across the province during this financial year.
And over the next five years, the province aims to increase services to 31,000 sites.
Premier Helen Zille and Human Settlements MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela announced the plan at a media briefing yesterday.
The department also intends building about 15,000 houses this year to try to eat into the backlog of nearly 500,000 houses.
An estimated 18,000 families migrate to the province, particularly Cape Town, from the rest of South Africa each year.
Constraints to building houses were funds and the availability of well-located land, said Madikizela.
The plan is to focus on "in situ" upgrading at informal settlements; temporary relocation areas and emergency housing programmes; and the provision of services at new sites.
Madikizela said that because the province would constantly be "chasing a moving target", it had decided to "place more emphasis on servicing sites".
"We have a lot of people with no services. We are now upgrading where they are."
The provision of basic services would include building roads, allocating numbers to homes and the provision of sanitation.
It has been estimated that more than 500,000 people in Cape Town do not have access to sanitation.
Zille said there was no way to "extend Cape Town's footprint".
"We would have to increase the city by 50 percent to accommodate people? we have to find ways of densifying and moving up. There is no other way," she said.
Zille's chief advisor, Ryan Coetzee, said their approach was based on "managing urbanisation".
This could lead to further challenges, he said.
"The more successful we are, the more attractive it will be for people to come here, which is not a bad thing. But we will have to try to manage that, when people do arrive."
Zille said: "Those who think that a faster rate of delivery of houses will result in fewer shacks are wrong."
Zille said other provinces, too, needed to "lift their game".
Madikizela's chief of staff, Anthony Hazell, said service sites referred to plots, and the upgrading was related to infrastructure installed on those plots.
At yesterday's briefing, officials also spoke on the challenges around housing allocation.
In one report commissioned by the Human Settlement department, it emerged that 90% of the beneficiaries of state-funded housing were letting their houses to others.
Zille said there were also cases where people had received houses in other provinces then moved to Cape Town to work here, making their homes in informal settlements.
Madikizela admitted there were challenges with the housing waiting list. But, he said, a private agency was helping the department to assess the credibility of the lists.
- Cape Argus
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