Cape Town - Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has granted permission for Dunoon homeowners to continue extending their homes into double and triple-storey houses, creating a programme that will assist them to build safe houses.
He said those buildings were providing essential low-cost affordable accommodation for residents who were moving out of shacks into brick houses and they were helping the City to get people out of the shacks faster than the state could.
“The City used to see those as a kind of planning violation because they are not permitted. Now what we should be doing is, as long as those people are connected properly to the sewer system, the buildings are safe and not going to fall down on people while they are sleeping inside them, they are not ‘planning’ problems or crime that we should be telling them to knock the buildings down,” Hill-Lewis said.
EFF spokesperson Andiswa Madikazi wasn’t happy about the plan and said the City “does not care about the community of Dunoon”.
“This is an escape plan for them. They no longer have Dunoon in part of their plans, all their focus is on the surrounding areas, hence this move.
“That place is already overpopulated with garbage all over the streets, sewerage pipes are bursting and there is a lack of infrastructure.”
Dunoon councillor Meisie Makuwa said: “I am glad that the mayor sees this as a great idea, but I wish he could allocate another pocket of land to the community instead of allowing them to build on to what we already have as we are already overpopulated.”
To help residents build as many compliant houses as they can, the City has a Mayoral Priority programme which includes local planning offices, off-the-shelf business plans, assistance to use sustainable building materials, and more.
Mayoral spokesperson Lyndon Khan said: “Unplanned development and informality is a major challenge for cities which experience rapid urbanisation, such as Cape Town.
“To make any meaningful dent in housing demand in our cities, we need to reposition the state as an enabler of housing by unlocking micro-developers, social housing companies and private sector delivery.
“Together, these three groups of developers can deliver far more affordable housing than the state ever can. They need to be enabled and freed up to deliver, rather than ever-more challenging hurdles placed in their way,” Lyndon said.
siviwe.melapi@inl.co.za