Abstract
M.Ing.
Housing is the core infrastructure on which all other infrastructure like electricity,
roads, water and sanitation depend. The escalation of public demonstrations by
communities against the slow delivery and poor quality of housing projects in 2006
indicates that housing is a very sensitive issue that also involves a lot of politics.
Most disadvantaged communities in South Africa lack even the most basic
infrastructure like water. For any community to function properly and be successful,
the core infrastructure must be in place. The core infrastructure consists of housing,
roads and storm-water, water and sanitation and electricity and other auxiliary
infrastructure include social services, safety and security.
Government in South Africa is facing the challenges of delivering on promises and
programmes from election campaigns and the mandate of the community.
Government set national targets on the delivery of infrastructure services by
focussing on water, electricity and sanitation. The national target was set to provide
universal access to electricity services by 2012.
The housing backlog in South Africa was chosen as a topic for this dissertation
because of the many challenges and the variants that the project team comes across
with each project. Project management involves managing projects according to
specifications, within budget and delivering the end-product on time. Delivering
completed housing projects to communities is a very challenging task as
demonstrated by the many late or stalled housing projects in municipalities.
This dissertation addresses the challenges facing the National Department of
Housing as well as municipalities in delivering good quality accommodation to the
poor communities.