* REPORT : 43

Summary report: SDI support for Durban Metro/Federation Partnership

BACKGROUND

The Durban Metro/Federation partnership is now in its third year. It is underpinned by a Memorandum of Understanding and strongly backed by UN Habitat and SDI. The objective of the partnership is to develop precedent setting projects that are people-driven and can feed into the citywide strategies to eradicate slums and improve the lives of slumdwellers.

Given serious capacity constraints in uTshani, SdI has agreed with uTshani Management to provide professional support to the projects that have emerged from this partnership. Where necessary SdI will draw in capacity from other local agencies such as PPT, BESG and CORC. This SdI support happens in four different ways. 

1)       Technical support is provided by Ms. Bunjiwe Gwebu, a qualified City planner, who was recruited by SDI and seconded to the Metro as coordinator of Federation projects. Further technical support is sometimes provided by SDI’s “resident” architect/planner, Mr. Aaron Wegmann.

2)       Social facilitation is provided on an occasional basis by Joel Bolnick who stimulates dialogue and strategic planning between the Federation, the head of Housing, Mr. Coughlan Pather and other officials in his department.

3)       Support for learning through international exchange programmes to and from Durban. These exchanges are now underpinned by agreements and MoU’s between four southern cities: Mumbai, Gen Santos City, Sao Paulo and Durban. The exchange programmes revolve around learning in regard to settlement upgrading, relocation and general community/govt engagement.

4)       Financial support for enumerations and exchange programmes as a counterpart to the city.  

SDI regards this partnership as one of the most important developments in its international network. 

UPDATE ON THE PROJECTS 

Lamontville Toilets. 

Two ablution blocks are now complete, except for the final step, which is sewer and water connections. For some reason these responsibilities were handed over to the Metro. Instead of waiting for Metro to tackle these issues, it is agreed that Federation will do the water connection on its own and the sewer connection with supervision from the city. 

The Lamontville savings schemes have identified a caretaker and set up a toilet management committee. Community members will be charged to use these facilities. Federation members will get discounts and their payments will be deducted from their savings. The city will subsidize all costs, including service charges, cleaning and security, for the period of one year. 

The city has agreed to extend the project and proposed that Federation identify several other suitable sites. Funds are ready for the next ablution blocks to be constructed. If the Federation identifies sites in high density settlements where there is no access to bulk services, the city will consider alternative technologies (such as Biolytix) provided the Federation brokers agreement with the councilors and the communities. 

Piesang River Double Storey units. 

The Federation, with support from Aaron Wegmann, has designed double-storey and triple-storey semi-detached units to be built in Piesang River to address the problem of overcrowding in the settlement. They have also identified forty landless families in the community who are willing to live in multi-storey structures. 

This is a very important development for the city. SDI is also excited about this since it begins to push the issue of densification and therefore addresses issues of environmental and financial sustainability for South African cities by pointing towards ways to increase densities and reduce urban sprawl. 

The city has agreed to fund 10 double storey units in Piesang River. These funds will come from available subsidies. This will be a stand alone project and will not be part of the overall Piesang River development. This means that the construction of double storey units will go ahead before disputes around plot and subsidy allocations in the overall development are addressed. 

The Federation and the city will now embark on their own costing exercises. The Federation and its support partners will employ a skilled builder to oversee the development. If necessary SDI will pre-finance this post. The Durban Metro and the Federation will fast track exchange programmes from other overcrowded settlements to Piesang River. 

Kenville Upgrade and Relocation

Project Preparation Trust (PPT) have been appointed as Project Managers for this development. The Federation will play a key role on the Steering Committee and will be responsible, in the first phase, for enumerations and the establishment of savings schemes. In the second phase it will be responsible for house planning and construction. It is hoped that the housing typologies to be experimented with in Piesang River will be carried over to Kenville, thereby reducing the number of families to be re-located.

Bunjiwe Gwebu will be the city’s lead person for this development. The Federation will try to be pro-active and set up the Steering Committee with the Project Manager.

Cato Manor and Transit Houses

The Metro’s order for 300 24 square metre units still stands. These shelters are to be used as transit accommodation for people who need to be re-located in Cato Manor so that de-densification can precede continuation of upgrading. Overall, it is estimated that about 1700 families will have to be re-located. Once again if double and treble storey units can find acceptance in the community then re-location will be minimized. The Piesang River experiment has important implications for Cato Manor and the Durban Federation is already beginning to discuss double storey’s with its large membership in the area.

In the meantime the city has struggled to find land for the transit accommodation. Four sites have been identified but rejected for environmental reasons.

The City also wants to set up transit housing in the north and south of the city. This is for the re-location of fire victims. (Durban has had seven fires in informal settlements this summer). In order to fast-track this process, Faizel (assistant to Cogi) has proposed that Kancane Kancene ship up several of the units that it has currently stock-piled. Their preference is for 9mm thick walls. Should these units be transferred they will be erected on available land in Piesang River and Cato Manor, as test cases.

The Durban Metro is very clear that these are temporary units. Unlike the city of Cape Town they want to make sure that these units are only slightly better than informal shacks, giving people shelter from the elements, access to services and protection from fire and flooding. However they want to make sure that these units are temporary and that people who are located in them will regard formal housing as a more desirable alternative and will not resist relocation. 

Inner City Houses

The Metro, the Federation and SDI are very keen to construct low cost housing units in the inner city in order to reverse the ongoing trend towards segregation and fragmentation of our cities. (CORC has a particular interest, too, since densification of inner-city land may reduce degradation of the environment that continues to occur through urban sprawl, destruction of eco-systems and increases in levels of pollution). 

The major challenge is affordability and the city’s approach at the moment is to look at rental stock and to target people with a capacity to pay minimum rents of approximately R500 per month. SDI is proposing that the city and the Federation consider sectional title rather than rental and that they explore cross subsidization through mixed income housing and through ground floor commercial development. In order to further this approach SDI will host visits to India and Brasil by the Mayor, City Manager and Durban Federation members involved in coordinating the partnership projects. 

Amaoti Upgrade and Development. 

The enumeration has been completed and data compilation is in its final stages. A detailed report will be prepared by Bunjiwe and should be ready for dissemination by the end of April. Prior to that there will need to be a verification exercise with community report back on a block by block basis. 

The city and the Federation also agreed that pilot housing units should now be designed and constructed in Amaoti. Again the concepts of affordability, incrementalism and higher density will be explored. Federation show houses should demonstrate these three elements. This means that if land and resources are secured, then the Federation will construct three show houses: one single-storey unit and one double storey, both with a 24 sq metre footprint, and possibly a treble-storey with an 18 sq metre footprint.

It is understood that the Federation, through its finance wing uTshani Fund should bear the costs for these show houses. However in light of their current constraints it was agreed that SDI would source funds for these units. They will be constructed in such a way that they could either become housing units for Amaoti families, or community facilities. In both cases the Metro would re-imburse SDI out of Amaoti project funds. 

Namibia and Stop 8

The Federation will embark on an shack count, enumeration and mapping exercise. The city will provide R120,000 for this project and in anticipation of PD’s inability to provide matching funds, CORC has offered to fill the gap, as it has proposed in Cape Town around the N2 Gateway project.

The Federation will also identify a site here for a sanitation unit. Since many areas of this settlement do not have access to services it is possible that the partnership may explore alternative and more sustainable technologies.

International Exchange Programmes

The City Manager, Head of Housing and the Mayor have been invited by the Brazilian Ministry of Cities and by the cities of Sao Paulo, Osasco and Santo Andre to visit Brazil in late April to sign MoU’s with the abovementioned cities. Patrick has been invited to bring along a Durban Federation delegation.

The City Manager has also requested to visit NSDF/MM/Sparc in India in order to learn about their relocation strategies, their construction of multi-storey units, their engagement with state institutions and their efforts to draw the market into the subsidization of low income housing.

The City managers in Addis Ababa and its sub-metros have asked a Durban delegation to come to Ethiopia to help kick start a similar relationship in their cities.