Housing Characteristics and the Provision of Basic Services for All: The Case of Human Settlement Programmes in Mpumalanga Province

Abstract

Human settlements fulfil fundamental human rights and substantially impact the quality of life.  In South Africa, the Department of Human Settlements has delivered almost five million houses, benefiting more than 20 million people to date.  Furthermore, the government continues to institute human settlement programmes to eradicate slums and informal settlements by providing housing options, particularly to the country’s poorest households. However, these achievements have also been tainted by severe housing defects, particularly with the poor quality of the housing’s physical infrastructure. This article examines the relationship between the physical characteristics of houses and the provision of basic services among housing beneficiaries of human settlement programmes. Quantitative techniques were utilised in the structured questionnaires. The results revealed that most human settlements are headed by households and also demonstrate that the provision of human settlement programmes accordingly features the physical infrastructural requirements of a home, the floor, walls, and roof, which human settlement occupants were happy with. The findings also revealed that, on average, the structural conditions are generally good. Furthermore, the delivery of low-cost housing has prioritised the adjacent provision of essential services like water, sanitation, electricity, and refuse removal to improve the standard of human life in Mpumalanga. In support of the theoretical framework, the findings demonstrate that housing characteristics and the provision of basic services contribute to creating conditions congruent with residents’ satisfaction in human settlement programmes in Mpumalanga province. The article concludes that although a house’s physical characteristics are important, providing essential services is necessary for human survival.