Kyle Lauf, Germiston teacher of life orientation and business studies, writes:
This month, April 2016, South Africa hosted the third United Nations Habitat Conference in Pretoria.
Delegates from numerous countries around the world met to discuss and find solutions to the complicated problems surrounding human settlements in developing countries, especially informal settlements like urban squatter camps and shantytowns.
South Africa’s Minister of Human Settlements, Lindiwe Sisulu, spoke about the South African government’s plans to eliminate informal settlements entirely.
But residents of Ekurhuleni know all too well that the problem of crowded squatter camps is not going away any time soon.
The Marathon and Makause informal settlements, along with many others between Primrose and Germiston, form a sprawling, uninterrupted mass of shanty shacks stretching over the old mining properties along Main Reef Road, all the way to Boksburg.
These settlements, like similar informal slums across South Africa, are squalid places for people to live.
Crime is rampant, without running water except for a few taps here and there, there are no toilets or sewerage infrastructure, rats are everywhere amongst the uncollected refuse – these settlements are also fire hazards with thousands of shacks built so closely together.
Minister Sisulu’s assertion of four million houses since 1994, although admirable, sounds like a hollow boast.
On April 9, the United Nations launched a global campaign to uplift the lives of slum dwellers globally.
It is described on their website as “a global public-private partnership…that will boost the prosperity of slum dwellers and also contribute to the prosperity of the whole city”.
Will Ekurhuleni mayor Mondli Gungubele’s State of the City address make reference to this at all?
What is our metro’s strategy regarding partnering with business, NGOs and government departments to eradicate the numerous squatter camps on the East Rand?
And why is the position of head of human settlements still vacant?
Ekurhuleni has the opportunity to be at the forefront of permanent solutions to overcrowded squatter camps in South Africa.
But we must address this with more urgency, political will and co-operation.
In India, the city of Ahmedabad has recently made headlines for its successful efforts at slum eradication.
City planners there teamed up with residents and private home developers to create four-storey co-operatively owned apartment blocks on the same sites as the previous shantytowns and, what’s more, with the very same residents now occupying these homes that are safe, with running water and electricity.
People have housing, while the whole area is uplifted at the same time.
Why don’t we see more of this type of initiative in Ekurhuleni, specifically Germiston?
Many squatter camp residents are employed in suburban homes, gardens, and businesses. Others are small traders and self-employed.
The metro must work much more urgently to integrate these people by providing proper urban infrastructure and services instead of squalid shantytowns.
Don’t wait for national or provincial government – the city must act first, then co-opt Gauteng and national governments.
