Housing Programmes and Social Amenities in the Amathole District of the Eastern Cape

Abstract

This paper is an endeavour to investigate the implementation of housing programmes in relation to the access which they have to social amenities in South Africa. It has been based on a broader study of the implementation of housing programmes in the Amathole District of the Eastern Cape province of South Africa. The research sample comprised 276 participants, 250 of whom were residents of houses which had been provided by the housing programmes, 4 were municipal housing officials of the 4 selected municipalities, while the remaining 22 comprised provincial housing officials, representatives of political parties, municipal managers, councillors and social workers. The findings revealed that the toilets in the houses were generally in a very poor condition and that, in some cases, the houses had no toilets. Most of the houses were also adversely affected by a lack of basic essential amenities, such as the lack of a supply of clean water, a lack of electricity and the lack of a sewage disposal system. In order to ensure that the previously marginalised people of South Africa receive the social justice which had been denied to them for decades by the apartheid regime, providing houses with proper access to basic essential social amenities should be prioritised within a social developmental approach. In accordance with the democratic principles which are enshrined in the Constitution of South Africa, a bottom-up approach should be adopted for the implementation of appropriate interventions to ensure that the actual needs of the people are met.