Assessing the role of subsidized housing in restructuring cities in democratic South Africa: the case of city of Polkwane

Abstract

South African cities have been shaped mainly by colonial and apartheid systems, serving the interest of minority of the population before 1994. The apartheid city spatial legacy and development practices continue to dictate the urban spatial evolution of South African cities despite more than 20 years of democracy, it has produced spatial fragmentation and urban sprawl. The urban morphology of most cities in democratic South Africa are strongly classed based on face value and have generally remained the same since 1994. There are government systems which have been implemented in order to reverse the various legacies of apartheid government. Subsidy housing became one of the development strategies of the post 1994 government in urban areas due to increasing urbanisation. The government put in place legislations, policies, programmes and entities to address housing backlog and the increasing housing demand. Various housing subsidy programmes created new settlements or extended old once and thus restructuring cities in different ways and City of Polokwane has been a recipient of subsidy housing since 1994. This study is a desktop research exploring the role of subsidy housing in spatial reform and restructuring of the City of Polokwane. The municipality identified strategic open spaces and earmarked them as strategic development areas which were used to deliver various housing programmes. The findings of the study and its conclusion has been that through subsidy housing the city managed to restructure spatially. However, there is a need for housing policy that speaks directly to restructuring of Polokwane City apart from available strategies and policies. The report further recommended spatial policy reform, land disposal policy implementation and others as an effective intervention areas in addressing apartheid spatial legacy of fragmentation.