R10 billion allocated to upgrade townships in South Africa

Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation Minister Lindiwe Sisulu on Tuesday, 18 May 2021 during a departmental budget speech confirmed the growth of informal settlements in South Africa will be reviewed.

The department’s priority areas for the period of 2021/2022 includes upgrading informal settlements, as well as the Integrated Residential Development Programme (IRDP), and significantly increasing rental housing stock.

Upgrading of Informal Settlements Grant Funding Framework

‘Migrating in droves’

Minister Sisulu cited an “unfortunate position” of people who had previously been restricted to rural areas under apartheid now “migrating in droves” to towns and cities in search of work and better housing opportunities.

This, in turn, resulted in South Africa’s urban areas growing by approximately 2.2 million households with no signs of slowing down. That means SA’s demand for housing will continue to boom over the coming years.

Sisulu referred to the challenge as a “constant nightmare made worse by the fact that we continuously receive undocumented migrants from neighbouring countries seeking employment”.

Addressing the legacy of Apartheid spatial planning

According to Sisulu, R10 billion will be allocated to accelerate the upgrading of informal settlements countrywide over the next three years, as a way to “address adequately the upgrading of this challenge in our country”.

“The rapid growth of informal settlements in all major cities and towns […] have necessitated a review of funding frameworks. The department has created a dedicated Upgrading of Informal Settlements Grant Funding Framework exclusively set-up to address adequately the upgrading of this challenge in our country”.

Minister Sisulu said the department is “confident that these strategies and interventions will simultaneously add the much-needed stimulus to our Economic Reconstruction and Recovery Plan to revive industries and the economy, especially the construction industry”.

She explained that 136 areas have been identified to “address the legacy of Apartheid spatial planning and to centre investment in areas of potential economic development”.

“We have declared these as Priority Human 11 Settlements and Housing Development Areas (PHSHDA’s). One-hundred and thirty-six areas were published on the 15th of May 2020, based on an extensive consultation process conducted with provinces and municipalities”.

Housing challenge in South Africa’s townships

Sisulu said “between 1994 and today, we have been able to deliver just more than 5 million subsidised housing and housing opportunities. We can safely say that no other country has delivered this number of houses freely.”

Minister Sisulu’s address can be read in its entirety here.

Back in June 2014, Premier David Makhura during the State of the Province Address explained that “townships must be self-sufficient and vibrant economic centres” in South Africa.

Makhura said at the time that the participation and inclusion of the people of the township into the mainstream economy “will be one of the key game changers” for the South African industry.