Bourgeois economists and social commentators have recently bemoaned the dismal state of the construction industry in South Africa. The big guns in this sector have posted huge losses and filed for liquidation and bankruptcy on an unprecedented scale. According to an Independent Online Business Report in African News Agency, 2019: “…South Africa’s beleaguered construction industry faces a trio of major risks this year from the general elections, failing State Owned Enterprises and the Budget…”
This sad state of affairs has huge implications for the working class with thousands of workers and their families who are now left unemployed and unable to make a living. Needless to say, this translates into various social ills such as increased crime, gangsterism, gender-based violence, homelessness, substance abuse and a host of other atrocities caused by state sanctioned structural poverty and squalor.
The industry bosses also claim that large scale demand for the development of lucrative projects have declined considerably. One of the main reasons cited for this is the low level of investor confidence. In other words they are unable to run their private companies profitably and enrich their shareholders. A 2018 internet article by KH Plant, an industry based company, stated: “Confidence in South Africa’s construction industry plummeted to 17-year lows in 2017. Policy uncertainty, slow economic growth and an underperforming rand were red flags to investors.”
This reflects the absurdity of the capitalist system and its misplaced priority of enriching the private individual at the cost of entire communities in dire need of housing. After twenty five years in power, the ANC-led government and other bourgeois parties have still not addressed the astronomically increasing housing backlog in the country! This fact is underlined in a 2018 Fin24 news article by Mayra Hartmann that states: ‘…The housing backlog reportedly stands at 2.3 million and is growing by around 178 000 houses a year. Neither the public nor the formal private sector appears to be able to close this gap.’ This flies in the face of their grandiose promise of housing and security for all – a promise eloquently expressed in the Freedom Charter.
The irony of all of this is that there is a massive need for houses to be built and hence massive employment opportunities for thousands of workers in various sectors of the construction industry. This however, is not profitable for the bosses of the construction industry as most financial industries – both national and international – are opposed to large scale investment in the social development of especially developing countries such as South Africa.
It poses too high a risk for a return on their investment. Structural Adjustment Programmes and austere fiscal policies focus strongly on substantial cuts in social expenditure by governments and have thus become exclusionary measures by international monetary institutions to deny the labouring masses access to decent housing and other basic social rights. It is quite clear that the construction industry bosses and their financiers have no interest in serving the poor.
Meanwhile, the African National Congress (ANC) and the Democratic Alliance (DA) alike, either provide poor and inadequate housing as the housing backlog and RDP inferior quality housing reflects. A June 2019 internet article by Cape Argus reporter, Marvin Charles reveals that ‘Shoddy construction of government subsidized houses in the province could delay projects indefinitely, adding to the housing crisis.’ And ‘The government is using smaller construction companies after larger companies have lost their appetite for the government housing programme.’ The DA has taken this a step further with their tin shanties and ‘site and services’ solution. More absurd are NGOs who are now employed to teach residents of squatter camps how to make these communities more livable! In addition, the DA has shown their bigotry by either economically excluding poor communities from leafy suburbs or by deliberate Apartheid spatial planning: planning geared towards evicting poor people from lucrative sites such as Salt River and Woodstock and throwing them in godforsaken dumps like Wolwe Rivier and Blikkiesdorp.
It is evident that the bourgeoisie and the entire government that support them have no interest in housing the poor or to see to their other human rights, unless it is profitable to them. The working class must fight independently and organise themselves for their freedom including the right to decent housing. It is only when we prioritise housing and other socio-economic needs as basic human rights of the working class, divorced from the vile profit motive within a socialist state, that we can be assured of decent housing and a comfortable living.