In 1994, the South African government set in place an ambitious plan to reduce the housing backlog and eradicate slums by 2012. The delivery of housing is subject to the South African National Environmental Management Act of 1998 that seeks to ensure sustainable resources use towards sustainable development of all activities. However, the question is whether or not reality matches the policy’s vision. One concern which arises is that the high demand for housing and the speed with which delivery of low-cost housing is occurring may compromise the environment. This study examines the challenges of implementing environmental policy requirements in low-cost-housing, using the case study of Ambleton in the Msunduzi Municipality, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. In attempting to assess the challenges of implementing environmental management policy requirements of the housing policy of 1994 and NEMA of 1998, four key challenges were identified: understanding environmental policy requirements, institutionalising capacity and cooperation, resolving conflict of values among stakeholders, and recognising budget constraints. The key participants in the study were officials from the provincial departments of Housing and the Department of Agriculture and Environmental Affairs, Msunduzi Municipal officials who implement the policy, including the Ward Councillor of Ambleton and the Service Provider. The methodology used to gather data was observation, in-depth interviews, and document review. It was revealed in the study that the understanding of policy requirements amongst key stakeholders is limited and that the institutional capacity is limited in terms of skills, coordination, and physical capacity. Different priorities of stakeholders play a major role in budget and priority setting by government, which affect the implementation of environmental policy requirements. It was pointed out by municipal staff that there is a shortage of funds for meeting all environmental policy requirements. Also explored were possibilities for improving environmental policy implementation. These include making environmental policy requirements in housing and NEMA more explicit to enhance stakeholders’ understanding, and enforcing compliance by environmental monitoring and audits. There is also a need for increased capacity building as well as improving coordination for better implementation of environmental policy requirements in low-cost housing. / Thesis (M.Env.Dev.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2007.

Thesis (MA (Geography and Environmental Studies)--University of Stellenbosch, 2010. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: In 2004, the then Department of Housing’s Breaking New Ground (BNG) policy introduced a compilation of principles that underlie a sustainable human settlement. The principles were aimed at guiding, amongst others, municipal officials in the decisions they take when faced with a housing development project. This thesis will set out to determine how municipal officials have taken up BNG’s principles for sustainable housing settlements as well as the perceptions, methods of implementation and degree of acceptance that housing and town planning managers have of BNG. In the study, the perceived relevance that these managers have of BNG within their non-metropolitan towns is explored using five of the fifteen leader towns of the Western Cape Province. This research has shown that BNG considers the compact urban form, coupled to other development considerations, as the most sustainable for South Africa. In terms of building sustainable human settlements: the low-income housing unit has evolved substantially since its conception, and that the current unit is held in far higher regard (by both municipalities and beneficiaries) than its predecessors. The design of this unit remains standardised due to a lack of funding for a more flexible design, but its structure allows for additions to be made at the cost of the beneficiary. Funding thus remains a major constraint to housing delivery. Municipalities feel that they are able to implement BNG, but that there are certain shortcomings in the document which prevent its full implementation. One of these shortcomings is the lack of an external funding mechanism for housing delivery, proposed in BNG, but never having materialised. Further, BNG focuses more on the metropolitan scenario and is not always relevant to non-metropolitan towns. Almost all of the municipalities have initiated inner city regeneration projects, but fewer have included the provision of social housing as part of their inner city rejuvenation. Subsidy housing is the most implemented housing typology, but these units often experience decay due to the absence of original owners who have (mostly illegally) sold or rented out their units. The one-erf-one-unit nature of subsidy housing is not seen as sustainable owing to space limitation experienced by most of the municipalities interviewed. Contrary to earlier research, in situ upgrading is a common occurrence in municipalities. However, there is a great need for stronger regional (or broader scale) planning regarding housing delivery. Low-income housing is strongly influenced by politics – a fact which municipalities say negatively influences housing delivery. Migration also poses a serious threat to municipal backlogs. Currently, the fight against an escalating demand for low-cost housing is a losing battle as the rate at which government is rolling out housing is vastly ineffectual. Municipalities deem that large-scale projects like the N2 Gateway might be a solution to their housing backlogs which, they concur, are at crisis point. However, municipalities indicated that their implementation of large scale projects will not follow the same path as the N2 Gateway – the planning of which is seen to be substandard. Currently, urban integration takes place on an income basis and not due to racial division. Inclusionary housing is seen as a relevant tool for the promotion of integration, but cannot be enforced to its full potential due to a lack of supporting legislation.

The aim of this study was to investigate the causes of the housing backlog in the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality from 2000 to 2014. Fifty participants which were two ward councilors and two PR councilors, four community development members, four ward committee members , twenty backyard dwellers from ward 17 and ward 18 and eighteen senior officials (project managers) from the Department of Human Settlement in the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality were purposively sampled for the study. A qualitative design was used. In-depth interviews were conducted to collect data to enable the researcher to ask open ended questions and explore the participants’ perspectives about the causes of housing backlog. The study revealed that the factors which are playing a role in this regard include the role played by the Eastern Cape Province in housing, the large portion of land which is privately owned, beneficiary management by municipal officials and political interference on the waiting list Metropolitan subsequently, recommendations for further research were made.