Title deeds expand opportunity to poor citizens

The City of Cape Town is committed to building an Opportunity City, where all citizens are given the means to reach their potential and become full and productive citizens. We are giving effect to this commitment through a range of interventions, the most notable of which is our on-going multi-billion rand investment in creating an integrated public transport system.

Once completed, we will have broken down the worst legacies of Apartheid spatial planning and ensured that historically marginalised communities from Atlantis to Khayelitsha will be able to access  economic opportunities utilising safe and reliable public transport networks.

But our focus on creating networks between people by creating networks of infrastructure goes one step further. In partnership with the Provincial Government of the Western Cape, we have prioritised investment in broadband infrastructure, which will help connect the city to the world through a faster broadband backbone.

Indeed, our extended roll-out will ensure that we provide this infrastructure in underserviced communities, which in turn will incentivise the private sector to take up surplus capacity and provide cheap and fast internet connectivity in these communities.

Were it not for the City's provision of the backbone of infrastructure, there would have been little financial incentive for the private sector to have entered into this particular market.

These are but two examples of how we are growing opportunity for citizens in the city. But in creating opportunity we have to look deeper than networks, to the foundations upon which any network is built. That is the foundation of any society where people have economic freedom and economic choices.

It is the foundation of ownership. Many of our citizens are already owners in our economy. Many of our poorer citizens, however, are not.

And at an individual level, in most cases, the major asset from which all other opportunities can be leveraged is the home. That is why we have begun providing title deeds to qualifying beneficiaries, to expand opportunity to poorer citizens.

Indeed, I believe that there is arguably no single intervention that holds the greater prospect of changing the lived reality of poor and marginalised citizens than the provision of ownership.

Having title to property is a fundamental requirement of a free market system, as it allows a home owner to derive an income and to access capital. Title enables recipients to start or expand a business venture, which in turn enables them to derive an income stream and help create jobs.

The City is driving this process in three different ways.

First, we are ensuring the transfer of title in new housing projects. Just this week, I had the privilege of presiding over a ceremony where title deeds were handed to the 236 beneficiaries of a housing project in Kewtown, Athlone.

The handover of title for new housing continues virtually every week in the city. In the coming months, 70 title deeds will be handed over in Temperance Town, 3 000 in Site C, Khayelitsha, and 130 in Kuyasa, where 2 200 have been handed over in the last two to three years.

Secondly, a separate process has seen the City focus on affording ownership to qualifying beneficiaries in existing housing. There are currently 16 000 saleable units in the City, which includes row houses, semi-detached and freestanding homes. These are units which can be properly surveyed and title transferred.

2500 units throughout the city have been identified for transfer this year.

The City will make use of every available mechanism to ensure costs are kept to an absolute minimum for qualifying beneficiaries; including the provision of the full  R88 000 subsidy to qualifying beneficiaries to cover the property price and any rental arrears. Furthermore, the City will contribute to the conveyance costs.

I have also committed the City to ensuring title is transferred to the qualifying beneficiaries in the Steurhof rental units, many of whom were previously the victims of forced removals.

There are on-going negotiations with the community, and I am determined to ensure that the process is concluded as a matter of extreme urgency. Once transfer is finalised, the beneficiaries' dignity will be restored and they will become financially independent.

The third process is specifically dedicated to redress, where the City is focused on transferring title to beneficiaries in historical housing projects, where these housing projects were completed more than 10 years ago. The failure to transfer title in these projects is a national problem, which has arisen from the fact that many of these areas were not properly surveyed, were subject to illegal occupation, amongst a range of other factors.

The City has appointed a consultant to overcome these difficulties and to ensure that, over the coming years, title is afforded to an estimated 30 000 possible beneficiaries. We are currently focused on nine areas as part of a pilot project that extends from Tambo Square to Masiphumulele.

These projects include 4 958 beneficiaries, of which 1874 have received title, with the City in the process of finalising the remainder.

Finally, the City is engaging with the relevant community members to ensure that we provide title to the tenants in the so-called Lagunya shops. Many of these tenants have been in these shops for decades and have not been able to access the full economic benefits of ownership due to the legacy of Apartheid. As such, I am pleased to say that the first 50 qualifying beneficiaries will receive title in February 2013, with the remainder due to be processed as soon as possible thereafter.

We are working to broaden the base of opportunity in this city, especially in terms of our infrastructure investment. But the greatest investment we can make is in our people. This makes economic sense. It makes financial sense. It makes business sense.

But whatever else it does, it is the right thing to do.

This article by Patricia de Lille first appeared Cape Town This Week, the weekly online newsletter of the Mayor of Cape Town.

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