Crumbling walls, sewage leaking into homes, dangerous loose wires — and sometimes, snakes. These are some of the myriad issues residents in Soweto, South Africa’s biggest township, have been dealing with for decades, as they say the government continues to deny them title deeds and urgent upgrades to their homes outside Johannesburg.
“It was a dream come true when the government allocated us these homes after more than 15 years of living in a shack,” said Nkosinathi Khumalo, resident of the Soweto suburb known as Snake Park because of its slithering visitors.
His home was built on top of wetlands, including a corrugated roof that blows off in high winds and water damage on the walls. “The sad part was when I realised we were being dumped here. We have been suffering for so long,” said Khumalo, 35, who is currently unemployed.
Made up of five smaller townships, Snake Park is home to about 5,000 properties built under South Africa’s Reconstruction and Development Programme, an ongoing government-funded social housing project that began in 1994.
According to official statistics, about 14 per cent of South African homes — or 2.3 million properties — are subsidised by the government. Houses are allocated to low-income families and people with disabilities, although several families in Snake Park said they waited at least a decade to get their homes.
Now, residents are angered by the rapid deterioration of those homes, saying the government took shortcuts when it built them so close to a wetland, making the houses susceptible to flooding, cracking and crumbling.
Those hazards have come to the fore in recent months, after the government ordered South Africans to stay home during a strict six-month lockdown to stem the spread of the new coronavirus. “Obviously it is a challenge to stay home and inside if your house is flooding,” said Thabiso Toti, a 53-year-old unemployed Snake Park resident.
Residents have 90 days from when they are allocated their house to sign a so-called “happy letter” confirming they are satisfied with the quality of the property, said Edward Makwarela of the human settlements department of Gauteng province, where Johannesburg is located. After that, any issues must be referred to the National Home Builders Registration Council for repairs, the project manager said in e-mailed comments. Makwarela noted that the Snake Park homes were part of the government’s People’s Housing Programme, in which communities are actively involved in building the properties. “Another issue could be the poor workmanship... driven by the community themselves, and they were not skilled,” he said.
Residents said they would like the chance to fix their homes themselves, but most cannot afford to. And bank loans are out of reach, they added, because they have no title deeds, which South African banks often require as collateral.
Makwarela pointed out that while the homes in Snake Park all have water, sanitation and electricity, the area still has no roads or stormwater drains, which he said is holding up the process of distributing title deeds. — Reuters
Kim Harrisberg
Oman Observer is now on the WhatsApp channel. Click here
