The Gauteng provincial government (GPG) has fleshed out a radical Mega Projects human settlements strategy that will signify a “paradigm shift” in spatial planning and housing development in the province, transitioning urban planning towards projects that delivered no fewer than 15 000 units and featured a self-contained “economy”.

Delivering a concept paper to representatives of local municipalities, utilities, the private sector and local communities, on Tuesday, Gauteng Premier David Makhura outlined the province’s intention to break away from “sporadic, small, isolated and monolithic” housing projects and entrench the development of “mega” human settlements under the Gauteng Department of Human Settlements’ Mega Projects strategy.

The programme would see the development of sprawling estates that offered a combination of low-, middle- and high-income residential housing and contained healthcare, education, recreational, retail, commercial and public transport facilities.

“In my State of the Province Address [earlier this year], I emphasised that human settlements are critical to the province’s transformation, modernisation and reindustrialisation plan, [but by] building 100 houses here and another 100 houses there, we won’t meet the housing backlog.

“We’re now looking at developments of not less than 15 000 units and up to as many as 60 000 units. In addition to it being human settlements development, [these developments] must be an economy of their own,” he told a packed auditorium at the launch of the strategy, in Johannesburg.

The Premier added that the GPG would simply be reproducing the injustices of the past if it continued to build along old spatial patterns.

“Spatial transformation is a crucial element of this programme and will bring to an end the dwellings built under the Reconstruction and Development Programme, which [is] a bad dream and [is characterised by] one house here, one there, no trees, no proper infrastructure, no integration, no community. We need high-density developments that are properly planned with all the facilities we need,” he explained.

In areas where the province would be unable to provide immediate housing delivery, it planned to roll out a “site and service”, where basic infrastructure and services would be installed in areas earmarked for development.

Residents could then build the dwelling themselves in anticipation of further future development.

“Once there is formalisation, certainty and people know they won’t be removed, they will start building,” he contended.

THREE-YEAR TRANSITION
Elaborating on the transition process from the current housing delivery method, which was characterised by microprojects, sporadic planning, a lack of coordination, and an exclusion from primary infrastructure, Makhura noted that the migration to the Mega Projects strategy would likely take place over three years.

The first transition stage would see the consolidation of existing projects into the Mega Projects portfolio, the launch of new megaprojects and the establishment of project management and oversight committees.

The second phase would involve the “complete closure” of existing microprojects, after which the Mega Project model was expected to be fully adopted in the province by the end of year three.

Seven development nodes  – Lanseria City, Cosmo City, Joburg South, Freedom City, Marlboro City, West Gold City, Florida City and the Inner City Node – had been targeted for development in Johannesburg under the housing strategy, and would add 306 506 housing opportunities.

This would result in the creation of six new “cities” in Johannesburg by 2019, three of these being private-sector led and the remaining three spearheaded by government.

More than 165 553 mixed housing units would be built in the city during this term of government, while a total of 306 605 housing opportunities would be created over the next 15 years.

In Ekurhuleni, 106 614 housing opportunities would be provided through the development of the city’s East Node, South Node and North Node over the next five years.

A further 180 875 people would be housed through the development of Tshwane’s Northern Node, Western Node, Central City Node, Southern Node, Eastern Node and Far Eastern Node.

“Notable developments [in this metropolitan] include the reorientation of Shoshanguve to curb urban sprawl and achieve urban integration through new ‘cities’, such as West Capital and Metsimanana Garden City,” the department outlined, adding that over R4-billion would be invested in the development of mixed residential stocks in the capital city.

In Sedibeng, the GPG planned to develop eight nodes and over 123 326 housing opportunities in the current term, while four new “cities”, including Savanna City and Vaal River City, would be created over the longer term.

Further, the West Rand would benefit from a “massive” boost to its economy through the development of the Syferfontein “megacity” over the next five years that would yield up to 100 000 residential opportunities.

PLANNING, PARTNERSHIP
Courting private sector participation and project buy-in, Makhura on Tuesday described public–private partnerships as the “centre piece” of his administration and the Mega Projects strategy, noting that it would only be through collaboration that the envisaged scale of development could be achieved.

Private developers would, in future, be required to include low-income housing development in their larger development plans, he signalled.

“Private developments must accommodate low-income developments, [and] we will ensure that this happens. Companies [should be] willing to accommodate social housing because we want inclusive development, not enclaves of the rich.

“All the large-scale developers know this is our language. Your bottom line is profit, ours is the poor,” he commented.

Makhura, meanwhile, acknowledged the public administrative shortfalls that had often hindered housing development by private companies and committed to ensuring that developers received the required environmental-impact assessment report from the Gauteng Human Settlements Department within three months of submission.

“The things we do as government must ensure that we don’t destroy the passions that the private sector partners have, or they [will] lose their appetite and go elsewhere,” he said.

Makhura further described government’s planning dispensation as one that had “essentially collapsed”.

“What we call planning in our system of government is not planning at all. This is a challenge to the municipalities, who have the greatest control. The things we have often spent time on is not planning and we want to eliminate this waste of time.

“Planning also shouldn’t stifle private-sector investment nor be an attempt to bureaucratise,” he noted at the event, which saw municipal representatives signing a memorandum on intent that committed them to driving the Mega Project strategy within their respective jurisdictions.

Gauteng Human Settlements MEC Jacob Mamabolo added that the province’s radical human settlements strategy would go some way towards alleviating the pressures currently felt by construction industry that were largely blamed on the lack of infrastructure roll-out by government.

“I’d like to make a commitment that the programme should be able to pick up the construction industry…and build confidence in the sector. This is an effort by the province to restore confidence in the sector. We promise to play our part if you play your part,” he held.

URBANISATION PUSH
The department outlined in its concept document on Tuesday that the province’s new housing strategy had emerged in response to its ever-expanding population, which it said had swelled by over one-million people in the last decade.

In Johannesburg, the housing backlog currently stood at 256 480, while 203 361 people were awaiting housing in Ekurhuleni, 120 498 in Tshwane, 44 186 in the West Rand and 62 490 in Sedibeng, bringing the total number of housing applicants in the province to 687 015.

This despite the province maintaining that government and the private sector had delivered 5.67-million formal houses by 2011, increasing the number of people living in formal housing from 64% in 1996 to 77.7% in 2011.

Reflecting on the growth of informal settlements, the province outlined in its Mega Projects proposal document that Census 2011 data had suggested that, while the number of households living in the informal settlements had increased, the total number of people living in informal settlements had declined.

“However, these advances are severely hindered by the fact that upgrade developments tend to attract newcomers…[and thus] the reduction in the number of people living in informal settlements does not mean a decline in the actual number of informal settlements in Gauteng, as is evident by [their] continued sprawl in the province.

“The province is faced with the challenge of addressing the existing housing backlog, while simultaneously managing mushrooming informal settlements. The Gauteng Department of Human Settlements, therefore, proposes new processes to effectively manage these,” the concept paper read.