An investigation into housing delivery in Cato Manor’s formal and informal settlements.

Abstract

It is argued that service delivery of housing can have either positive or negative implications on people’s personal and social livelihoods. Therefore, informed by the Urban Resilience Theory, this study investigates the service delivery of housing in Cato Manor’s formal and informal settlements. In doing so, this study aims to explore how varied housing systems in Cato Manor function under different economic, environmental or socio-political conditions. The main method of data collection in the study are qualitative in-depth interviews with a sample of 11 participants from Cato Crest communities. The study analyses varying housing challenges as experienced by participants including issues of types of housing systems, access to housing, key role players in housing provision, factors affecting the provision of housing and the impact of housing systems on personal and social relations. The main findings are consistent with what has been found by previous researchers on housing service delivery in South Africa. The following challenges remain: shack-landlordism; politicization of housing delivery; the quality of housing and lack of basic services. This study concludes that governments housing policies are stringent and inflexible to accommodate distinctive social needs of families within the outlined communities. The researcher presents the case study of Cato Manor as an example of how current housing systems have broken existing social bonds and alienated neighbors from one another through forced relocations and caused social tensions and violence by failing to consider the first-come, first-served principles. Thus, the study recommends depoliticization and restructuring of current housing policies in order to deliver housing schemes and programmes that are considerate of the socio-economic context of intended beneficiaries.