By Nangamso Mabindla
23 September 2004

BUFFALO City municipality held a workshop in East London on Friday, 17 September to fine-tune a 10-year plan which seeks to eliminate a backlog of 75000 houses in the city.

Participants at the workshops, including representatives from the departments of housing and planning, examined the municipality's housing policy and the implementation of housing programmes.

The housing policy, adopted by council last December, is linked to the municipality's integrated development plan.

Stressing the importance of housing delivery, Sithembiso Tyilo, the councillor responsible for development planning, said, "The housing policy process in the city constitutes an integral part of our efforts in terms of the constitutional mandate to create and sustain viable human settlements within the city's areas of jurisdiction."

However, for the city to fulfill its mandate it needed to eliminate the backlog, which was the main cause of many social problems, he said.

Examples of such social problems were seen in large families in single formal houses, or other families living in informal settlements like Duncan Village and Nompumelelo.

Another major challenge facing the city was urbanisation. "This has meant that the size of the demand has increased in the face of the stubborn growth of informal settlements," Tyilo added.

However, in terms of the City's Housing Policy and Implementation Plan, social housing had the potential to contribute immediately to the development of holistic human settlement.

"It also has the potential to remove the remnants of apartheid spatial planning, providing a mix of housing, including rental, and to create viable and sustainable commercial and social centres," said Tyilo.

Explaining the policy, housing programme manager Devan Govender said it would ensure that all housing would facilitate integrated development environments with appropriate and accessible social and physical infrastructure. "These include local economic development, schools, transport and community facilities," he said.

The policy would also look at providing subsidised housing aimed at catering for the needs of the homeless, aged, disabled and other special groups.

According to Govender, through the policy the city would also adopt a developer role when it comes to housing delivery. "We will develop partnerships and strategies on fast-tracking housing delivery," he added. "Local people as well as emerging contractors would be contracted to complete the required work."

The policy - and the 10-year implementation plan - is to be referred to council for approval.