Housing dilemma? An exploratory study on the illegal disposal of free government houses by the poor in various areas within the City of Cape Town.
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Date
2024
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University of the Western Cape
Abstract
South Africa has a long-standing housing crisis and a growing backlog, following colonialism and apartheid. South Africa has made significant strides to ensure residents have a right to access adequate housing. First, the state has ensured that housing legislation and policies were developed to give effect to this right. Second, the state ensured legislation was put in place to prohibit the illegal sale of free government houses. Yet, the government faces the dilemma whereby poor community members in various areas within the City of Cape Town (CoCT), are still disposing of their homes for different reasons. Therefore, the research study seeks to explore and understand the different reasons why the poor within the CoCT, do not utilize the free government houses that were allocated to them, and as a consequence deepens the housing problem. The study also seeks to examine the legislation, policies and mechanisms in place to prohibit the illegal disposal of free government houses within the CoCT. The study is grounded on the public policy implementation and public value theory. Furthermore, the study is based on secondary qualitative research methods. Extant literature was used to collect data. The findings of the study revealed the following main reasons behind the illegal disposal of government houses; poor location of government projects, need for cash often tied to unemployment, various financial costs associated with homeownership, such as municipal service charges, travelling costs, maintenance costs, and other costs, such as purchasing of furniture or home appliances. Furthermore, in certain instances beneficiaries returned to their birthplace or rural areas, in other instances, beneficiaries returned to informal settlements or backyard dwellings. The findings indicate that both the Housing Amendment Act of 2001 and the CoCT Allocation Policy: Housing Opportunities do not stipulate any punitive measures, as well as, who and how the pre-emptive clause should be monitored by the CoCT. As a result, the pre-emptive clause compels beneficiaries to illegally sell their government houses because they cannot sell it any other way, which undermines their ability to realise the true value of the house. The study found that the government’s own legislation, policies and mechanisms perpetuate the very activity it was designed to prohibit and monitor
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Keywords
South Africa, Housing dilemma, Cape Town, Government Housing, illegal disposal