WeeklySA_AdminPRIORITIES: The country’s massive housing backlog cannot be solved with old building methods, calling for innovative, climate-resilient technologies to deliver housing faster, at scale, and with dignity for all, says President Cyril Ramaphosa….
By Monk Nkomo
Nearly 2, 5 million families were still on the waiting list for housing in South Africa despite the fact that the right to adequate housing was a basic human right reflected both in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the country’s Constitution.
This was said by President Cyril Ramaphosa during his address at the Innovative Building Technologies Summit that was held at Nasrec, Johannesburg this week.
South Africa, like many other countries in the world, faced a growing demand for housing which is not merely about shelter, but was also about belonging, security and opportunity. Having shelter that provided privacy, safety and freedom was inextricably bound to human dignity, Ramaphosa added.
‘’ The right to adequate housing must not be the sole privilege of those with money. It is an aspiration for all that our Constitution compels us to progressively realise.’’
The President said since 1994, the democratic government had been able to provide more than five million housing opportunities. This achievement stood among the most ambitious social programmes on this continent that had transformed millions of lives.
The acute shortage of housing, according to Ramaphosa, followed inadequate supply, limited land availability, rising construction costs and delays in project delivery, all of which were contributing to a situation of scarcity.
‘’This had a number of consequences. For the middle class, prices and rents are being pushed upwards. For the poor, homelessness and the proliferation of informal settlements are exacerbating already dire conditions. The delivery of basic services to unplanned settlements is stretching the capacity and the resources of the State.’’
The President added that rapid urbanisation, population growth, migration and climate change were reshaping the human settlements on an unprecedented scale. It was estimated that by 2050, nearly eight out of every ten South Africans was going to live in cities. Many are expected to live in informal settlements, often located on land vulnerable to floods, drought, heat stress and environmental degradation.
In recent years, many parts of the country had borne the brunt of climate change. ‘’ It was always the poorest and most vulnerable who suffer first and who suffer the most.’’
Ramaphosa warned that If they continued to build in the old way – on the same land, with the same vulnerabilities, using the same methods – then they were not solving the housing challenge.
‘’We must make a change. We must embrace the tide of technological progress to future-proof human settlements. This is a social imperative and an economic necessity. The right to adequate housing must not be the sole privilege of those with money. It is an aspiration for all that our Constitution compels us to progressively realise. This Summit has been convened because it is time to think differently.’’
The country have to think beyond traditional brick-and-mortar, Ramaphosa said. It was time to embrace technological solutions that enabled housing to be delivered faster, better and at scale. This Summit brought together Government, regulators, financiers, innovators, municipalities, professional bodies, community organisations, youth formations and international partners in support of modernising human settlements. They were united in their resolve to turn innovation into a coordinated national pathway for housing delivery at scale.
‘’We are learning from global experience while building solutions that are locally embedded, socially accepted and owned by our people. At the G20 Leaders’ Summit held in Johannesburg in November last year, South Africa reaffirmed a principle that now defines leadership in the 21st Century. We said that resilience is not merely the ability to recover. It is the foresight to prepare’’.
The President said resilience was about choices made before disaster struck. It was about building systems that protected lives, conserved resources and endured over time. Resilient human settlements required such foresight.
Buildings, he added, were among the world’s largest sources of carbon emissions and resource consumption. Traditional construction methods, while familiar and trusted, were no longer sustainable on their own. Water scarcity, rising energy costs, climate risk and the urgency of scale demanded that they modernise how they built.
Innovative building technologies offered them a strategic opportunity. When appropriately regulated, financed, socially accepted and locally embedded, innovative building technologies allowed the country to build faster and at scale.
Ramaphosa stressed that innovation without standards eroded confidence, while innovation with oversight built legitimacy. The 2024 White Paper on Human Settlements provided the policy foundation for the innovative shift they needed to make. It called for resilient building typologies, sustainable local materials, rapid emergency housing responses and stronger partnerships across society.
At the heart of this Summit was a Social Compact on Innovative Building Technologies. Most importantly, it established shared responsibility and accountability. The Innovative Building Technologies Programme focused on areas where impact was most urgent. These areas included disaster recovery and emergency housing, climate-resilient settlements, energy-efficient and water-saving technologies and local manufacturing and supply chains.
Through the Social Compact, Government, development finance institutions, banks and insurers had committed to align funding instruments, de-risk these projects, and recognise certified IBT housing as financeable and insurable assets. Without this alignment, innovation stalled.
‘’As we proceed along this path, we need to address concerns that these innovative building technologies will cost jobs. We must work together to protect jobs. We must draw on the international experience that shows that innovation does not eliminate work, but rather transforms it. International experience shows bricklayers becoming technicians, contractors becoming manufacturers and communities becoming producers, not just beneficiaries’’.
Ramaphosa said Innovative building technologies enabled the country to align housing delivery with technical training, artisan development, digital skills and local manufacturing. Through this, they must provide opportunities for young people in particular to learn and to work.
‘’We must use this transition to address the persistent exclusion of women from the built environment sector. Through targeted procurement, access to finance and support for women-owned enterprises and cooperatives, innovative building technologies can create space for women as entrepreneurs, innovators and leaders. This Summit is a commitment to action. The Social Compact will guide coordinated implementation, supported by structured governance, monitoring and accountability.
Delivery is now the measure of our seriousness. Resilience is the difference between recovery and repeated loss, between dignity and displacement, between success and failure. We have the technology to build for the present and to be prepared for the future’’.
