Squatter sites rise - informal settlements double

Squatter sites rise - informal settlements double

Squatter sites rise

The number of informal settlements in South Africa has doubled in the last 10 years.

Just last week about 100 households started erecting shacks across Main Reef Road near the Princess informal settlement in Roodepoort, western Johannesburg.
One of those hard at work was Tlotlo Sejamoholo.
"I was living on a plot but the owner sold it and we had to leave last week," he said. " That is why I am here."
Sejamoholo's neighbour, Josephina Mosulusi, said: "We are under constant threat from Metro police but we have nowhere else to go."
Other residents of the new shanty town said they moved from Princess because they were on a flood plain.
In 2001 there were 1 066 shanty towns nationally. That number has since risen to 2628 informal settlements "as at the 2009-10 financial year".
"This figure does not take into account any new or illegal informal settlements that emerged from the time the study was initiated and concluded. This figure is estimated to be nearer to 2700," said Chris Vick, who speaks for the national Department of Human Settlement.
Only about "721 informal settlements have been identified nationally for formalisation and upgrading with basic services by the various provinces and local municipalities", he said.
Gauteng has the highest number of informal settlements. At least 84 new informal settlements sprang up in the last five years - from 405 settlements in 2005. In January 489 were counted.
"Only 122 lend themselves to formalisation. To date 69 of the settlements have already been formalised and are now legally recognised as townships. That means people have a title deed registered in the name of the beneficiary," said Fred Mokoko, Gauteng spokesperson for housing.
"Settlements can only be formalised if the location of the settlement is complimentary to Provincial and Municipal Planning Policy such as the Spatial Development Framework (SDF) and Integrated Development Plan (IDP) in which municipalities amongst other things make provision for future housing planning.
"Settlements earmarked for formalisation will have to undergo not just an assessment from a planning policy or framework compliance point of view, but also suitability in terms of physical features such as the soil conditions, environmental sensitivities," Mokoko said.
"It would be important to acknowledge that as planning for a particular settlement is completed, and in the absence of stringent growth management measures in place, settlements continue to experience internal growth that often renders approved township plans obsolete. Such township plans will have to be amended or alternative plans must be put in place and often such dense settlements will have to be relocated elsewhere," he said.
Johannesburg municipality is carrying the heaviest burden with 180 shanty towns.
Currently, 25 percent of Johannesburg's citizens fall in the informal category which equates to about 200 000 households.

Keywords - Gauteng, informal settlements, moladi, rural development, concrete homes, backlog, households, Integrated Development Plan, Human settlements, shanty town, Chris Vick, Department of Human Settlement