Abstract
The objective of this dissertation is to examine and
evaluate the effects on housing supply of the fragmented
administration and expenditure methodology of the Gauteng
government.
The interrelationship between the supply and demand for
houses in a country such as South Africa with its
dualistic economy is for historical, as well as socioeconomic
reasons, complex. Differences in the supply and
demand of housing for the racial groups as identified in
the socio-economic policy, known as apartheid, determined
expenditure of all administrations up to the beginning of
the nineties. Not only were the policy objectives of
that time mainly aimed at looking after the interests of
the white component of the population, but the outspoken
objective for many years, if not for decades, was to keep
the standard of accommodation for blacks at a level that
would enhance their desire to return to the so-called
Homelands or National States.
Migrant workers, mostly blacks from the Homelands, were
accommodated in hostels run by government (in most cases)
or the private sector (mainly mines). It was single-sex
accommodation (men only). Their families had to remain
in the homelands as their permanent residence. The
living conditions in these hostels were poor with an
approximate bed:person ratio of 1:2,8 and toilet:person ratio of 1:100. The aims of the hostels were to keep
wages low as well as to control black urbanisation. (Rust
1996:139) In its “Policy for the Upgrading of Public
Sector Hostels” of 1994, the Department of Housing
defined several objectives for the upgrading of the
hostels.
Prof. A.G. Nieuwenhuizen