Fiona Macleod
Minister of Housing Sankie Mthembi- Mahanyele is talking about starting a revolution in her second term of office.
“We’ve laid the foundations, the building blocks are in place and a social revolution is about to start,” she says. “Our society is changing, and housing is one of the factors contributing towards that change.”
What she’s talking about is taking a basic human need and using it to turn society on its head: giving people skills they never knew they had, linking people who before would have had nothing to do with each other, and empowering women in an industry which used to give them access to little more than the tea towel.
“The next five years are going to see us putting more energy and resources into the people’s housing process. South Africans have to fold up their sleeves and start reconstructing the country, to change the face of what South Africa is to what it should be. This is the revolution that is taking place.”
She does not want to set targets such as building one million houses in five years – a promise made by her predecessor, Joe Slovo, which resulted in the African National Congress government taking a lot of flak when it was not met.
“We know we are now able to produce 300 000 housing units a year. More than three million people have been given a shelter in the past four and a half years – that kind of statistic is much more effective than saying how many houses we have produced to date.
“We want to maintain this momentum and improve on it. But we also want to concentrate on the quality of the units we’re producing and on the different tenure options available in the market.
“Rather than pursuing a figure, we want to look at how housing and housing policies impact on the lives of our people.
“Do our policies touch the souls of the nation? I want to say they do. When you talk to the farmers who have volunteered to build houses for their workers, the white families who have been given homes in our urban renewal programmes, the bricklayers who have become developers of note, the women who have become large-scale contractors handling huge amounts of money, the hostel-dwellers who are living in upgraded accommodation … you get the feeling that our policies are transforming the lives of our people.”
The minister is dismissive of critics who say the R15 000 housing subsidy is only enough to build tiny houses that are substandard and, in some instances, likely to fall down.
“Our detractors don’t know about things like how the conditions of the soil affect the size of the house. Scientific research informs us that the minimum size should be 30m2 and upwards, and we will take the building industry to task where units are smaller than this.
“The debates are economic and political. Those who say we’re asking the building industry for too much have not been involved in housing delivery.”
While there is no give and take on the minimum size, flexibility in the types of houses built is a necessity. “Some people want to spend more on the size of the house rather than putting divisions inside; they can then put in cheap dividing panels themselves. Some want houses of 42m2, with two walls, a roof and a toilet; then they add the other walls themselves.”
Quality of housing and of life skills will be the focus of Mthembi-Mahanyele’s second term. She also promises to improve her ministry’s administration, management skills and the service it provides to the public.
“We aim to go back to our communities and advance the people’s housing process. Where people have developed innovative approaches and solutions, there is an opportunity for us to work with them.
“We want to ensure the capacity from support centres is sustainable, so that people who want to develop as carpenters, bricklayers, etc can develop their skills and make a larger contribution to the economy.
“We need to look at related industries in the making of homes. Housing delivery should not end at the point where we hand over the key to the beneficiary – that should just be the beginning of the creation of a home. What goes into that house should also be our business.”
The government will maintain a hard line on land invasions by people on housing waiting lists, she says.
“We want to encourage a culture of responsiblity. At the same time, owners of large pieces of land they’re not using must understand we need land for development. We need to instil a new culture of respect for the potential beneficiaries of housing delivery.”