Infrastructure

Social Housing

The Social Housing Act requires that all social housing projects be developed in Restructuring Zones (RZs).  RZs are intended as an instrument to pursue the restructuring of South African cities, with the essence being to enable economic, racial, and social integration. Restructuring is largely about moving away from housing interventions that entrench/enforce, or in any way maintain, the spatial status quo, which reinforces certain social and economic disparities. Social Housing is therefore one of the few housing programmes that creates a means for redressing historical spatial injustices. RZs are endorsed by the relevant municipality and the Provincial Minister of Infrastructure. Thereafter, the RZs are approved and gazetted by the National Minister of Human Settlements. A total of eleven municipalities have had RZs gazetted, enabling new social housing projects to be planned and packaged in the Stellenbosch, Drakenstein, Swartland, Mossel Bay, George, Knysna, and Bitou municipalities. 

With specific reference to the Metro, the City of Cape Town’s Human Settlements Strategy (2021) outlines how the City will develop and enable housing interventions. This strategy emphasizes the critical importance of location and enabling well-located housing opportunities for all City residents and guides the implementation of all human settlement projects in the City. The City of Cape Town has 15 approved and gazetted RZs as outlined below:

1. CBD and Surrounds- Bokaap, Waterfront, Green Point, Sea Point, Camps Bay, Hout Bay, Vredehoek, Gardens and Surrounds (Salt River, Woodstock, Walmer Estate and Observatory)
2. Northern- Parklands, Table View and surrounds
3. Northern Near- Milnerton and Killarney
4. Northern Central - Bellville, Bothasig, Goodwood and surrounds
5. Southern - Strandfontein, Mitchells Plain, Mandalay and surrounds
6. Southern Near - Claremont, Newlands, Kenilworth and Rondebosch
7. Southern Central - Westlake, Steenberg
8. Far South Muizenberg, Fish Hoek and Simonstown
9. South-Eastern Somerset West, Strand and Gordon’s Bay
10. Eastern- Brackenfell, Durbanville, Kraaifontein, Kuils River
11. Cape Flats- Athlone, and surrounds (Pinelands to Ottery)
12. Khayelitsha CBD- Khayelitsha CBD
13. Tokai and Retreat CBD- Tokai/Retreat and surrounds
14. Wynberg CBD- Wynberg and surrounds
15. Corridors- Blaauwberg, Melkbos and surrounds, Blackheath/Saxonburg and surrounds, Metro South-East Corridor, Voortrekker Road Corridor, Southern Corridor, Ysterplaat, Brooklyn, Rugby, Century City Corridor, Wetton- Lansdowne Road Corridor, Constantia, Plumstead and Diep River

The aforementioned RZs are also aligned to the gazetted Priority Housing Development Areas (PHDAs), namely:

• Atlantis SEZ,
• Blaauwberg Development/N7 Growth Corridor,
• Hout Bay/Imizamo Yethu,
• Blue Downs Integration Zone,
• Cape Town Voortrekker Road Corridor; and
• Khayelitsha Corridor.

Land selection for social housing is also aligned to the spatial vision of the City (specifically the Municipal Spatial Development Framework - MSDF). One of the more important criteria that the City uses for land identification for social housing is that it falls within key Development Corridors or Mixed-Use Intensification Areas. These areas are identified for their location potential and importance as it relates to spatial transformation and enabling integration.

Relocation Areas

The City endeavours to enable the in situ upgrading of informal settlements, where possible, in order to ensure that households experience minimal displacement. However, many informal settlements in Cape Town are either incredibly dense or located in high-risk areas (e.g. on wetlands, under power lines, in road reserves etc.). In these instances, full or partial relocation is required in order to provide access to services and to enable safety. When relocations are unavoidable, the City endeavours to find vacant and available land in close proximity to the settlement in order to minimise disruption to households’ lives, and social and economic connections. When there is no land in the immediate vicinity available, the next closest suitable land parcel is identified for relocation.

Land availability for relocations remains a critical risk for the City, as there is insufficient City land to accommodate the informal settlements relocation demand. The City is thus endeavouring to purchase privately owned land in close proximity to informal settlements to enable relocations and reduce the displacement of households, in order to mitigate this risk.

In addition to prioritizing development on well-located parcels of land, the province is actively encouraging in-situ upgrading as a complementary strategy for improving living conditions in existing informal settlements. This approach recognises that many communities are already well established and located in areas that provide reasonable access to socio-economic opportunities. Through in-situ upgrading, the province aims to enhance safety, infrastructure, and service delivery without displacing residents.

To support this, various implementation methods are being promoted, including re-blocking, which reorganises settlement layouts to improve access for emergency services, create safer movement corridors, and enable the installation of basic services; and super-blocking, which focuses on creating larger, manageable blocks that facilitate phased upgrading and infrastructure rollout. These approaches collectively seek to balance the need for improved living environments with the importance of maintaining community cohesion and minimising relocation.