The argument in this dissertation is that housing studies focus mainly on the politicaleconomy
paradigms and ignore the role played by other social theories. On the one hand,
conventional economic theory, mainly built on new-Liberal principles, suggests that
privatisation is required to ensure that markets work better. In the housing field,
privatisation is mainly seen as a way to ensure the initiation of a secondary housing
market. On the other hand, Neo-Marxist views argue that privatisation leads to a range of
negative impacts, such as eventual homelessness and the unaffordable nature of housing
bonds. The main problem with these two political and economic viewpoints is that they
are blind to other social theories and ignore, to a large degree, the historical context of
housing, especially in South Africa. The debates in this study point out that the pathdependency
theory (with historical methodology as a sub-approach) in housing policy
discourses provides additional understanding of privatisation, especially in the South
African context. In contradiction to general observation, housing processes in South
Africa may be locked in their own trajectory, and they may not be similar to those in the
parent colonial power such as Britain.
This study identifies a policy and research gap in privatisation. It is the first attempt to
assess the privatisation of housing in South Africa through empirical evidence since the
introduction of the Discount Benefit Scheme two decades ago. The international
literature shows that there has been an effort in both developed and developing countries
to privatise rental housing stock. This move is related to the overwhelming pro-market
policy developments after the Second World War. Neo-Liberal and Neo-Marxist thinkers put forward various opinions for and against the process. With South Africa having had
strong economic and political ties with Britain during apartheid, the South African
government also privatised the nearly 500 000 state-owned housing units. Researchers in
South Africa also made postulations that were either Neo-Liberal or Neo-Marxist in
assessing the future possible impact of housing privatisation, this despite the work of
Turner and Tipple on the social context of housing.
The dissertation tests the original argument of the political-economy continuum by
interrogating the empirical evidence obtained from the suburb of Rocklands,
Bloemfontein. In this environment, tenants improve the state-subsidised core houses
through what Tipple terms âtransformationsâ, which are more a response to social needs
than to economic imperatives. The empirical analysis looks at the outcomes of housing
privatisation relating to the physical effects on housing after transformations, the
processes involved in transformations that accentuate self-dependence and
resourcefulness and the capacity of tenants to borrow from the market and trade their
improved assets in the market.
The main findings from the empirical evidence support a key theoretical assumption that
housing debates should look beyond the binary political-economic debate. The findings
in the study refute the political-economic assumptions forwarded in the Neo-Liberal and
Neo-Marxist theories. However, the findings in the study support Tippleâs contentions on
the critical role of the social and historical context of housing. To this effect, the main
findings in the study are similar to Tippleâs contentions, namely that privatisation leads to
transformations that combat housing stress, that transformations produce economic
multipliers in the locality, that transformations occur outside the basis of secure tenure
and that income is not the most important variable in housing extensions. The study goes
further and suggests the historical context of housing, whereby privatisation is a way of
ensuring a foothold in urban South Africa. Such a foothold in urban South Africa is
important considering the historical exclusion of black people from urban South Africa.
The social context of black housing in South Africa is characterised by a long quest for urban citizenship and housing rights. These characteristics give rise to a distinct housing
environment not observable in the developed countries.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:ufs/oai:etd.uovs.ac.za:etd-05172013-154148 |
| Date | 17 May 2013 |
| Creators | Sefika, Moeketsi Simon |
| Contributors | Prof JGL Marais |
| Publisher | University of the Free State |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en-uk |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.uovs.ac.za//theses/available/etd-05172013-154148/restricted/ |
| Rights | unrestricted, I hereby certify that, if appropriate, I have obtained and attached hereto a written permission statement from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis, dissertation, or project report, allowing distribution as specified below. I certify that the version I submitted is the same as that approved by my advisory committee. I hereby grant to University Free State or its agents the non-exclusive license to archive and make accessible, under the conditions specified below, my thesis, dissertation, or project report in whole or in part in all forms of media, now or hereafter known. I retain all other ownership rights to the copyright of the thesis, dissertation or project report. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis, dissertation, or project report. |
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