Three people per bedsit and six to a one-bedroom flat is what Cape Town city officials are proposing as the standard for government’s multibillion-rand N2 Gateway shack eradication project, according to a confidential draft document in the possession of the Mail & Guardian.
Apartheid-era council accommodation in blocks of flats, known on the Cape Flats as courts, provided two-bedroom units as a norm. ”Where’s the improvement? It will only look better [than the shacks] from the highway,” said Ted Baumann, programme officer of the Urban Resource Centre. ”The question is whether people regard this as the outcome they expected from government.”
The housing ministry was also critical of the city’s proposals. ”It’s nothing better than a hostel,” said housing ministry spokesperson Thabang Chiloane. ”One pillar [of the human settle-ment plan] is to bring back dignity; these proposals would not bring back anyone’s dignity. This is the very thing we said should not happen. However, nothing is official until the minister, MEC and mayor agree.”
The City of Cape Town: N2 Project, Approach to Allocation of Units: Draft document, first discussed last week, says larger, three-bedroom units would be on offer in Delft ”to compensate for relatively poor location”, and proposes a housing lottery. Delft is about 35km from the city centre
The removal of about 10 000 house-holds from informal settlements — such as Joe Slovo, Kanana and Barcelona, which are close to the city and job opportunities — to outlying Delft could spark tensions. And, given Cape Town’s backlog of 261 000 houses, a housing lottery could also prove controversial.
According to the document, bedsits and one-bedroom units in blocks of flats constitute two-thirds of rental stock. Rental tenure applies to 70% of the 22 000 new homes planned for the project, which will stretch along the highway between the airport and city.
The document says housing reci-pients can indicate their preference for either rental or ownership. However, if one option is oversubscribed, preference will be given according to the length of time lived in an informal settle-ment or backyard, and family size. A lottery is given as an alternative.
The N2 Gateway Project is a joint initiative of all three spheres of government — national coffers are providing direct finance of R2,3-billion in addition to the housing subsidy, while the Cape Town council is responsible for implementation.
It is the first of 18 projects country-wide, two per province, under the new Sustainable Human Settlement Plan. This aims to clear shack settlements and establish integrated, safe and people-friendly communities.
It appears that the officials’ draft has taken Cape Town’s political leaders by surprise: they only learnt of it on Wednesday. The communication breakdown follows the recent purge of senior managers, including several loyal to the council’s ruling African National Congress. The new top management team, dubbed Ikhwezi (morning star) and appointed largely from outside the Western Cape, has only been in place since Tuesday.
Attempts to obtain council comment this week proved difficult. Mike Marsden, the executive director for development and infrastructure, said a number of housing-type options were under discussion. He maintained that the development was in line with enumeration studies and the human settlement plan. Project spokesperson Saths Moodley, also the minister’s adviser, said, ”The people dealing with this project somehow seemed to have missed the point.” Mayor Noma India Mfeketo did not comment.
Meanwhile, only about 100 of the 700 homes planned for Joe Slovo will be ready by the end-of-June deadline. Following various delays in getting the construction of the 2 200 homes in total off the ground, the N2 Gateway Project will now only be completed in mid-2006.