Zama Mgwatyu, Programme Manager at Development Action Group. When President Cyril Ramaphosa delivered the 2026 State of the Nation Address, he moved beyond general acknowledgement of the housing crisis and outlined a series of more concrete interventions. These included accelerating the release of well-located public land, expanding social and affordable housing, unblocking stalled housing projects, reforming infrastructure financing, and strengthening coordination through the human settlements framework.
These commitments signal an awareness that housing lies at the heart of South Africa’s inequality crisis. The question now is whether they will shift the structural conditions that continue to reproduce spatial exclusion. South Africa’s housing crisis is not simply about the number of units delivered.
It is about where housing is located, who it serves, and how it connects people to opportunity. For decades, well-located land has remained underutilised or locked up, while low-income households have been pushed to the urban periphery, far from jobs, schools and essential services. The President’s renewed commitment to public land release is therefore significant.
[paywall]
Public land is one of the most powerful levers the state has to reverse apartheid geography. Yet land release has been promised before, often without meaningful follow-through. If this intervention is to be transformative, it must be accompanied by transparent identification of land parcels, clear development timelines, enforceable affordability conditions, and safeguards against speculative capture.
Without these protections, land reform risks entrenching exclusion rather than dismantling it. The President also committed to unblocking stalled housing projects, many of which represent frozen public investment and broken promises to communities. Across the country, partially built or abandoned developments stand as visible reminders of mismanagement, contractor failure and weak oversight.
Resolving these projects is not only about accelerating construction; it is about restoring credibility. A credible unblocking strategy must include transparent audits of stalled developments, public disclosure of the reasons for failure, consequences where corruption or negligence is identified, and dedicated technical capacity to complete viable projects. Acceleration without accountability will deepen mistrust rather than rebuild it.
While SONA acknowledged the growth of informal settlements, upgrading must be treated not as a peripheral programme but as a central pillar of housing policy. Informal settlements are home to millions and will remain so for the foreseeable future. Upgrading in situ is often more cost-effective and socially just than relocation to distant sites.
It enables incremental improvements to water, sanitation, electricity and safety while preserving social networks and livelihoods. Yet this approach requires ring-fenced funding, flexible procurement frameworks that enable community participation, and protection against extortion and criminal interference that increasingly disrupt local delivery. Recognising informal settlements as permanent parts of the urban fabric demands institutional commitment, not temporary language.
Infrastructure reform, another key theme in SONA 2026, is inseparable from housing delivery. Homes cannot be built or upgraded without reliable water, sanitation, electricity and transport systems. The President’s emphasis on new infrastructure financing mechanisms is welcome, but financing must be paired with municipal stabilisation.
The widening gap between functional and distressed municipalities threatens to undermine even well-funded national programmes. Technical assistance, performance-linked grants and strengthened intergovernmental accountability systems must follow the commitments made in SONA. Without capable municipalities, housing policy remains aspirational.
Perhaps the most promising shift in tone was the framing of housing as part of a broader economic strategy. Housing development is not only a social obligation; it is a driver of employment, enterprise development and economic inclusion. Well-located housing reduces transport costs and improves labour market access.
Upgrading programmes can create local jobs and support small-scale contractors. Integrating youth skills development and livelihood opportunities into housing initiatives would help ensure that delivery contributes directly to tackling unemployment and poverty.
[/paywall]
All Zim News – Bringing you the latest news and updates.
