Policy engagements on mega human settlements

In July 2014, the national minister of Human Settlements announced a new direction in housing policy, arguing that in order to get back to adequate scale of housing production and to produce integrated human settlements, all new housing would be provided in mega human settlements. In April 2015, the Gauteng Province launched its interpretation of this policy, explaining that the province would shift from small projects of a few hundred units to large settlements of more than 15000 units.

This ‘paradigm shift’ has provoked a number of questions about viability and the location of these settlements particularly in relation to economic opportunities (For example see the GCRO map of the month depicting locations of planned settlements). Given these questions, the GCRO partnered with the Gauteng Provincial department of Human Settlements and the Wits School of Architecture and Planning to organise a dialogue session on 3 September 2015 at the University of the Witwatersrand. Around 50 people attended the morning session, including officials from all three spheres of government and other stakeholders.

The presenters were Khululekile Mase (Gauteng Planning Division); Mandla George (Chief Director: Gauteng Human Settlements Policy, Strategic Planning Monitoring & Evaluation); Margot Rubin (Senior Researcher: SA Chair in Spatial Analysis & City Planning, WITS School of Architecture and Planning); Lesiba Sekele (Head: Gauteng Human Settlements Project Management Office); Philip Harrison (South African Research Chair in Spatial Analysis and City Planning); Monty Narsoo (Independent Contractor); Mark Napier (Principal Researcher in the CSIR Built Environment); Richard Ballard (Specialist Researcher, Gauteng City-Region Observatory); and Alison Tshangana (specialist in Human Settlements at the South African Local Government Association (SALGA).