Revisiting the Self-Help Housing debate: Perception of Self-Help Housing by the beneficiaries of South African low-cost housing

3.5 The South African experience of SHH

The South African experience of SHH as policy for dealing with housing shortage and urban population growth is recent; however, the application of SHH itself is an older practice in South Africa. Apart from rural areas where SHH is the most common practice of building shelter (Mathey, 1992), it has been observed that during the apartheid regime, what may be called de facto SHH occurred. In fact, the segregated planning of the apartheid regime, which consisted of isolating black people from centres of economic activities and creating locations for indigenous people on the periphery, may be considered as de facto SHH initiative for the urban poor (Saunders, 1960 quoted in Parnell and Hart, 1999).

Parnell and Hart (1999) analyze the practice of SHH in South Africa in the twentieth century. They notice that during the colonial era, the SHH was the strategy adopted by urban poor people to meet their housing needs. As Posel (1991) asserts, «owner building was briefly endorsed as part of the post world war reconstruction initiative, only rejected once apartheid ideologies gained full control of urban planning and influx controls in the late 1950s» (quoted in Parnell and Hart, 1999: 368). According to the same authors, SHH saw its revival again in 1970s given the urban crisis with the severe housing shortage.

It may be concluded that in South Africa, before and during apartheid system, poor households have always practiced SHH when they were facing housing crisis and urban population growth. As Parnell and Hart (1999: 385) put it, «experience from South Africa, from colonial times to the present non-racial democratic government of Nelson Mandela, shows that adoption of SHH strategies always interfaces with the wider political and economic realities, though not in uniform or predictable ways». It may also be acknowledged that SHH strategies occur with and without the government support. As Omenya (2002) argues, «People will always do something about their housing situation, whether or not they are assisted».

The current emphasis on SHH in South Africa is legitimatized in Housing policy and other policy documents. The 1994 South African White Paper on housing gives space to SHH. It especially States that:

«The right of the individual to freedom of choice in the process of satisfying his or her own housing needs is recognised. At the same time it is recognised that people should be able to access and leverage resources on a collective basis. The State should promote both the right of the individual to choose and encourage collective efforts (where appropriate) by people to improve their housing circumstances» (1994, Housing White Paper).

In addition, Sankie Mthembi-Mahanyele (1996), the former Minister of Housing in Northern Cape, acknowledged the necessity of fostering SHH in South-Africa. The former Housing Minister firmly believed that SHH could make a significant contribution in the provision to housing in South Africa. Her belief in SHH is based on international experience. She has affirmed that:

«People throughout the world are the main producers of housing and they have proved in many innovative ways that they are willing and able to contribute in meeting their own housing needs. In South Africa, things are not different. Such is the importance that we set by this process that my department has set up a framework to support this and we call it the People's Housing Process.» (Mthembi-Mahanyele, 1996)

In addition, the 1994 WP on Housing states that, «International experience indicates a large degree of resilience, ingenuity and ability in households to look after their own housing needs with appropriate institutional support and financial assistance from government».

The Department of Housing (1997) through its «Urban Development Framework» defines PHP as «where individuals, families, or groups take the initiative to organize the planning, design and building of, or actually build their houses». The main idea which guides this policy document through the implementation of PHP is the appropriation by households of their housing process. This clearly appears when the Housing Department (1997) affirms that «in such a process, people are in control of important decisions such as how the house is designed, how resources are used, where and how they can obtain affordable building materials and how the house will be built».

The SHH which the South African Housing WP encourages is what I named above the «market Self-Help Housing»^30(*). Like the World Bank, South African Housing policy has sought to solve housing crisis at the supply level (Omenya, 2002). This means that the aim of the South African government in developing the Housing WP was to ensure that the housing market provided enough possibilities for everyone to choose the mode of housing delivery which suits him/her but did not offer enough possibilities for individuals to afford housing provided by the market. For Spiegel et al (1994), «Housing white paper is oriented on `supply side' rather than `demand side' considerations» (quoted in Spiegel et al, 1996).

Despite the objectives defined by the Housing WP of enabling the housing market with the possibility of choices, one may ask whether the post-apartheid government succeeds in attaining this goal. The response is negative: neither the housing supply side, nor the demand side allow better housing conditions for the low-income poor. Indeed, many authors have criticized the current South African Housing Policy and have pointed out its ineffectiveness. Khan (2003) observes that the post-apartheid housing policy contained in the 1994 Housing WP is extremely problematic, especially in term of sustainable human settlement development, employment creation and poverty eradication. As main obstacles for post-apartheid housing policy to improve informal settlements and to create employment, there are, according to the author, continuation of peripheral development with poor infrastructure and planning frameworks and also the absence of any coherent programme to deal with vested interests in the land market. In addition, the author points out that the post-apartheid housing construction deals with small informal contractors with little experience and capacity. Furthermore, the author notes the lack of capacity and skills of public authorities to design and implement integrated development plans. These criticisms show that South Africa needs to elaborate a new housing policy.

Omenya (2002) distrusts the recent gusto for SHH in South Africa in challenging its desirability and its capacity to tackle the issue of lack of quality observed in the delivery of housing through the RDP.

Moser (1992) also recommends the participation of women in SHH. She founds her argumentation in enumerating the roles of women. In fact, she bestows three main roles to women. Firstly, alongside the reproductive role assigned to women, the author points out the production role of women in rural and urban area as primary or secondary income earners. She observes that in rural areas the women are the most involved in agriculture and in urban areas they participate in the informal sector. Secondly, the author affirms that women are very involved in community management work. In the absence of the government provision related to housing, water, electricity, women, as the most affected, seek to ensure the survival of their households. Finally, in referring to Barrig and Fort, (1987); Moser, (1987); Cole, (1987); Sharma et al., (1985) the author asserts that women are effective in the role of organizing local-level protest groups. The author concludes that «because of the Self-Help Housing nature of so many settlements and housing policies in the Third World, the discussion of stereotype housing target groups must also include the issue of women's participation in Self-Help housing projects» (Moser, 1992: 58)

This analysis introduces us to the criteria for successful implementation of SHH in South Africa. The last section of this chapter aims at elaborating criteria for a better implementation of SHH in South Africa.

* ³⁰ This is one of housing modes of delivery promoted by the Housing WP. In addition, the same policy document encourages the State to grant housing subsidy to poor households who earn less than R 3500.