Have mega housing projects achieved what they set out to do?: a case study of Savannah City

Abstract

In July 2014, former Minister of Housing Lindiwe Sisulu announced a new policy direction moving away from small scale, and infill housing development to large scale housing called mega housing projects. These mega housing projects would deliver 15 000 units and above per project and were expected to deliver 1.5 million houses by 2019 and this was called “A new Marshall Plan” by the minister. The policy shift was primarily driven by the slow delivery of housing, which was not meeting the growing demand for housing in the country, since her last appointment as the minister of housing between 2004 and 2009. This was caused by bureaucratic entanglements and the complexities of multiple small projects. In addition, there was a need for something attention grabbing in the context of political troubles and economic struggle. In development of the new housing vision, Premier David Makhura announced Gauteng’s own mega project initiative to create large self-contained new cities of no less than 15 000 units each. These would be strategically located along the north, south, east, western and central corridor developments of Gauteng province and would contain a mix of private and public housing and located mainly towards the urban periphery. The main objectives of the new housing policy approach were identified as increasing housing delivery; solving governance problems; adopting new utopian thinking; promoting spatial equity; and scaling up. Although mega housing projects are not a new phenomenon in South Africa; the turn to mega projects as the sole mechanism of state housing delivery has been met with criticism by scholars and professionals. In terms of adopting two urban agendas in urban transformation, the mega project approach has been criticized to contravene with the existing urban agenda of creating compact city development. The research sought to unpack what has been done since the announcement in 2014, through evaluating the progress of a mega housing project in Gauteng. The research sought to determine whether Savanna City, as a prototype mega housing project, has been able to meet the objectives stipulated in the mega housing project document and determine whether this could be a useful mechanism in housing delivery and provide an alternative perspective on urban transformation. The research mainly focuses on the delivery perspective and partially on the residents’ lived experiences in answering the research question