Frustration festers over long wait for houses

DIEPSLOOT – When an angry crowd rampaged through a ragged Johannesburg township this month they sent a sharp reminder to South Africa that they were tired of waiting for decent houses.

Police fired rubber bullets at thousands of rioters incensed by rumours that they were to be forcibly evicted from their dilapidated shacks in Diepsloot. The violence reflected frustration felt by millions of poor South Africans who, 10 years after the end of white rule, are still battling mismanagement and corruption to secure better housing.”I applied for a house and when I went to check my name, it was not anywhere on the list,” said Gail Zikale, whose was moved from the squalid township of Alexandra eight years ago.”I beg the government to come to Diepsloot to see what is happening.”South Africa’s constitution gives everyone the right to adequate housing yet life in the slums remains a reality for up to 20 percent of its 45 million citizens as the country wrestles with the legacy of apartheid.So far the ruling African National Congress (ANC) has built 1,6 million houses.But some 9 million people are still waiting for one, putting immense pressure on President Thabo Mbeki who began his second term promising ‘delivery’.”The ANC sold itself to the electorate on its promises and its record on housing,” said Tom Lodge, professor of politics at the University of the Witswatersrand.”In political terms, quite apart from development considerations, housing for the ANC is very, very important.”After the party’s sweeping election victory in April Mbeki handed the tough housing portfolio to Lindwe Sisulu – a rising ANC star.She admits she was shocked by the scale of the problem.”We were all overwhelmed by the enormity of the job that lay ahead of us,” she told Reuters in an interview.One hurdle is ensuring building keeps pace with a continuing flow of rural dwellers and illegal immigrants into places like Diepsloot.Every year up to 300 000 flock to Gauteng – the province that encompasses Johannesburg, Pretoria, Soweto and Diepsloot.Some squeeze into shacks belonging to family or friends, living six or seven to a room a few metres wide while other put up new shacks, adding to overcrowding in the slums.Police are rarely seen in the twisting slum alleys and rapes and muggings are common.Fire is also a danger – a spilt candle could send flames racing through hundreds of densely-packed shacks.”There’s no order here.People do what they want,” said Matthew Baloyi pointing to Diepsloot’s unpaved streets strewn with rubbish and spotted with puddles from broken water pipes.Around 20 slum dwellers might share one portable toilet in this township of 100 000 and a stench hangs in the air.Baloyi was one of the few thousand given a government house here, but it was built on dusty soil too poor to grow vegetables and is far from central Johannesburg where he hopes to find work.Baloyi said the house – a single room with a curtain drawn across one corner to create a bedroom – was poorly built but he is grateful.”Half a loaf is better than nothing,” he said.Politics professor Lodge said it was important to remember the scale of the crisis that faced Nelson Mandela’s government when it came to power in 1994.”I think one can be critical of the lack of planning behind much of the new housing development, but it has been done very quickly,” he said.”They’ve got more things right than wrong.”The ANC’s Sisulu is frank about the effectiveness of the government’s Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP).”I have not been too happy with the quality and concept around the RDP house,” she said.”If we keep it we’ve definitely got to improve on it.”Her department is turning to flat rentals as a way of accommodating single workers who often have a family home outside the city and do not need a government house.”Tying them down to an RDP house might not be what they want.These (flats) will help us remove a huge segment of the people living in informal settlements.”- Nampa-ReutersThe violence reflected frustration felt by millions of poor South Africans who, 10 years after the end of white rule, are still battling mismanagement and corruption to secure better housing.”I applied for a house and when I went to check my name, it was not anywhere on the list,” said Gail Zikale, whose was moved from the squalid township of Alexandra eight years ago.”I beg the government to come to Diepsloot to see what is happening.”South Africa’s constitution gives everyone the right to adequate housing yet life in the slums remains a reality for up to 20 percent of its 45 million citizens as the country wrestles with the legacy of apartheid.So far the ruling African National Congress (ANC) has built 1,6 million houses.But some 9 million people are still waiting for one, putting immense pressure on President Thabo Mbeki who began his second term promising ‘delivery’.”The ANC sold itself to the electorate on its promises and its record on housing,” said Tom Lodge, professor of politics at the University of the Witswatersrand.”In political terms, quite apart from development considerations, housing for the ANC is very, very important.”After the party’s sweeping election victory in April Mbeki handed the tough housing portfolio to Lindwe Sisulu – a rising ANC star.She admits she was shocked by the scale of the problem.”We were all overwhelmed by the enormity of the job that lay ahead of us,” she told Reuters in an interview.One hurdle is ensuring building keeps pace with a continuing flow of rural dwellers and illegal immigrants into places like Diepsloot.Every year up to 300 000 flock to Gauteng – the province that encompasses Johannesburg, Pretoria, Soweto and Diepsloot.Some squeeze into shacks belonging to family or friends, living six or seven to a room a few metres wide while other put up new shacks, adding to overcrowding in the slums.Police are rarely seen in the twisting slum alleys and rapes and muggings are common.Fire is also a danger – a spilt candle could send flames racing through hundreds of densely-packed shacks.”There’s no order here.People do what they want,” said Matthew Baloyi pointing to Diepsloot’s unpaved streets strewn with rubbish and spotted with puddles from broken water pipes.Around 20 slum dwellers might share one portable toilet in this township of 100 000 and a stench hangs in the air.Baloyi was one of the few thousand given a government house here, but it was built on dusty soil too poor to grow vegetables and is far from central Johannesburg where he hopes to find work.Baloyi said the house – a single room with a curtain drawn across one corner to create a bedroom – was poorly built but he is grateful.”Half a loaf is better than nothing,” he said.Politics professor Lodge said it was important to remember the scale of the crisis that faced Nelson Mandela’s government when it came to power in 1994.”I think one can be critical of the lack of planning behind much of the new housing development, but it has been done very quickly,” he said.”They’ve got more things right than wrong.”The ANC’s Sisulu is frank about the effectiveness of the government’s Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP).”I have not been too happy with the quality and concept around the RDP house,” she said.”If we keep it we’ve definitely got to improve on it.”Her department is turning to flat rentals as a way of accommodating single workers who often have a family home outside the city and do not need a government house.”Tying them down to an RDP house might not be what they want.These (flats) will help us remove a huge segment of the people living in informal settlements.”- Nampa-Reuters