Housing crisis needs radical solutions

Key issues such as ancestral land, the national resettlement programme and the controversial veterinary cordon fence or red line, have all featured prominently in the ongoing land debate taking place in the build-up to the country's second national conference.

Interestingly, we have also observed that fairly populist notions regarding the country's housing crisis and urban land reform failures, which once dominated the national discourse, are nowhere to be found this time around. Much of the emphasis going into the national land conference has sadly been on government's preparedness or lack thereof, its standoffs with various pressure groups and who has been invited, or not, to participate at this important gathering. The housing crisis, which has seen a backlog of over 300 000 units developing nearly unabated, has not enjoyed anywhere near the necessary prioritisation by government over the past 28 years. The National Housing Enterprise, on the other hand, is flooded with thousands of unattended applications for low-cost houses. Instead, the politically connected and elite have been positioned to benefit from developer tenders that has resulted in overpriced homes and rentals. Our local authorities, and to an extent the ruling party, have failed to show the political will to fix this crisis. Now government is hiding behind its failures by laying the blame for the unfolding crisis at apartheid's door, while it has enjoyed the levers of power for the past 28 years. Housing is a basic need, and ensuring more affordable land to allow people to build at their own pace, must be considered the critical priority. We can no longer allow a situation where most urban residents spend their hard-earned cash on paying rent. This is not fair. One wonders why such a rich nation isn't able to provide some of the basic needs of its citizens.

And why land, especially in urban areas, is still seen as a money-making cash cow, instead of as a way to restore the dignity of our people.