Obstacles to Housing Delivery in Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality : A Critical Review of Output and Input

he The aim of this paper is to propose solutions that could ameliorate the housing delivery obstacles frequently confronting the City of Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality. The study, which is exploratory in nature and adopted an interpretive research philosophy, used informed knowledge and the qualitative method to validate housing delivery challenges in South Africa that could be linked to some housing challenges in other parts of Africa. This was done using two analytical tools input and output mechanisms that have made delivery of housing in EMM a difficult task. The study contends that a combination of land unavailability, stringent government policies, heightened by escalating population growth, political vs. administration interference, and poor economic viability have resulted in the epileptic delivery of housing in the EMM.


Introduction
The constraints and challenges that face South Africa are not unique to it but to virtually all African countries in relation to the economic and political environment, cost of building material which invariably affect the cost in real estate, accessibility to land and lack of finance (Ayedun and Oluwatobi 2011:7).Despite significant achievements in housing projects, some challenges remain broadening effects to socio-cultural inclinations such as access to the housing market, integrated and sustainable human settlements, value, heritage and ancestry linkages (South Africa Yearbook 2012/13:19).
However, in Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality (EMM), the obstacles to housing challenges can be better understood and solved from the purview of bundles of heterogeneous attributes (see hierarchy of needs by Maslow) (Hablemitoglu, Ozkan & Purutcuoglu 2010:214), as opposed to Baloyi' s (2007:1)  Poor implementation of the inputs, particularly government policies, administrative and political and economic variables result in the failures of expected outputs which invariably leads to shortages in housing, thereby limiting the distribution and delivery of housing in EMM.
The diagram below depicts the obstacles to the delivery of housing in EMM.
Obstacles to Housing Delivery in Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality 143 • Growth, Employment And Redistribution (GEAR), • Accelerated and Shared Growth Administrative  Zanganeh, Varesi and Zangiabadi (2013:180) argue that in developing countries, the housing problem has in recent times become a more compelling socioeconomic and political issue, resulting from increasing population size, emigration, migration, urbanization, rapid growth, lack of sufficient financial resources, land availability and supply, capacity, and most importantly lack of proper legislative framework in terms of policy and planning concerning land distribution and demands.To provide a panacea to the malingered defiance in distribution and allocation of housing deliverable, the paper will examine the output and input challenges in EMM.

Housing delivery outputs
There are two basic obstacles that have prevented outputs in the delivery of housing in EMM.These are: i. housing shortage and ii.housing distribution.

Housing shortage
At the centre of this problem is the reality that there is drastic shortage of housing in South Africa (Napier 1993:21).Malpass (1990:5) argues that housing shortage means that the total number of households exceed the number of dwellings available.The housing shortage troubling most countries in the region and the continent at large is not the lack of demand (demand/supply).Often, it is as a direct result of macro-economic policies and governments' non-housing budgets.This has continued to claim a significant portion of the budget, yet the yearning for increased housing units is constantly on the increase or put succinctly, the number of homeless citizens is on the increase (Habitat and ILO 1995:3).
According to Bradley (2003:3), adequate shelter means more than a roof over one's head.It means adequate privacy, space, security, lighting and ventilation, basic infrastructure and location with regard to work and basic facilities, all at a reasonable and affordable prize (Habitat & ILO 1995:2).Inadequate housing would therefore likely be manifested in a combination of the lack of security, lighting and ventilation, basic infrastructure or when it is has this entire feature but out of reach for most occupants of a region or territory (Harvey 2000:28).

Obstacles to Housing Delivery in Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality 145
There exists a relationship between crowding and inadequate housing, in that, crowding is a deviation from private space, security, lighting and ventilation.


Multiplicity of legislation -there was a multiplicity and duplication of legislation governing housing, land and services.This is still the case with the current policies.
The foregoing issues constantly remained a major challenge where there was structural desegregation between whites and blacks.This effect is what is still being trickled down to present day South Africa.Despite that though, the South African government has engaged on experimental activities in the struggle to formulate parameters that ensure and enhance the delivery of housing in an affordable and sustainable manner (Habitat & ILO 1995:3).In EMM, issues such as unavailability of land have been constantly diminishing such novelty.

Unavailability of land
Effective and timely release of appropriate land for housing is critical to achieving the desired rate of delivery of housing (White Paper on housing 1994:27).Unavailability of land is the biggest housing delivery constraint in EMM due to dolomite and shallow undermining (Dyantyi 2007:80) There is therefore a dire need for an accelerated housing project to commence in the municipality that has little or no available land space for such capacity.However, the Housing Development Agency (HDA) is intending to help with the acquisition and release of land, as well as the funding and the unblocking of delivery constraints.While this has the tendency of strengthening customers' choices and preferences, the affordability of such a choice makes it difficult to rent or procure by customers (Jeffery 2010:354).
According to the City of Ekurhuleni Annual Report (2010/11:25), the unavailability of land poses a major insurmountable challenge.Alternatives can however be made where flats can be built on the limited land available to help arrest the problem.However, the nature of the soil to hold such high rising buildings continues to be worrisome.With the unavailability of land being a major inhibiting factor, without proper mechanisms for the distribution of housing units, questions arise around the nature of availability.

Housing Distribution
SA Yearbook has continually decried housing distribution as a major role player in delivering housing to communities in a sustainable manner (SA Yearbook 2009/10: 286).Bonner et al., (2012:145) argue that the unparalleled manner in which housing units are distributed in the municipality questions the nobility of its engagement, given that houses are tied to either affiliation to a particular political party or loyalist to the heads of department.This attitude represents a spoilt system in administration, which limits efficiency, effectiveness, fairness, equality and capacity, thereby strengthening corrupt practices that also severely affect housing distribution in EMM, where officials get paid in cash or kind by people, subverting the waiting list for favoritism.Such conduct contradicts administrative ethics as seen in Chapter 10 of the 1996 Constitution of the Republic of South Africa and Cloete's assertion that every public official must display a sense of responsibility when performing official duties.In other words, the conduct should be above reproach (Cloete, 1997:69).

Housing delivery inputs
Housing delivery inputs are processes that necessitate and increase the outcry for the availability of housing in the EMM.They include among others: population growth, government economic policies and municipal administration.

Population growth
Most of the challenges that have seemingly remained unresolved post-independence, despite multiplicity of policies, approaches, frameworks, projects and programmes in EMM and other municipalities can be equated to chasing moving targets (Bonner et al., 2012:176), which Jeffery (2010:353) consequently attributed to inter-provincial migration and the splitting of households into smaller entities.However, Napier (1993:23) argues that the rate of population growth is merely the splitting of households as Bonner et al. with demand despite an impressive delivery of RDP homes (Jeffery 2010:353).This is corroborated by Mhone and Edigheji (2003:60) in their admission that while progress is being made on the housing front, there is huge backlog which outruns construction and delivery of housing in the municipality as a result of urbanization.

Urbanization
Urbanization is the change in the proportion of a population living in an urban area characterized by the availability and accessibilities of social and economic activities in large scale (Weeks 2012:357).(Brutus 2002:3) refers to it as a social change on a vast scale which deepens irrevocable changes that affect all sectors of society, characterized by a particular society shift from being largely bound to the country to being bound by the city.Napier (1993:25) views it as a spontaneous phenomenon of in-migration to cities that requires creative management.The process of in-migration is unavoidable once an area has certain developmental features that propel growth and accelerated development of the people living in such an area.Urbanization is one of the factors that have resulted in the unprecedented increase in the populace of EMM and a major challenge in housing deliveries in the metropolitan municipality.
Ekurhuleni's dynamic eco-diversity earned it a major destination for job seekers, Obstacles to Housing Delivery in Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality 149

Informal Settlements
The most visible manifestation of the persistence of the housing problem is the large informal settlements dotted across Ekurhuleni's vast landscape (Bonner et al. 2012:215).
By 2005, 112 informal settlements had been tagged and recorded (City of Ekurhuleni 2011:16).The informal settlements (slums, shacks and squatter camps) are often a result of increasing urban populations, which are largely attributable to rural-urban migration.
Innes, Kentridge and Perold (1992:163) argue that informal housing has increased rapidly as a consequence of the backlog in formal housing supply (the acute shortage of housing) and rapid population growth.
Informal settlements are typically described as sites of extreme poverty, disorder and chaos yet scrutinised more closely, some display an underside of community cohesion and order which may well characterise the majority of informal settlements in the Ekurhuleni area (Bonner et al. 2012:223).However, while Tshitereke (2008:1) agrees in his explanation that generally, informal settlements are located in prohibitive spaces for human habitation and are therefore characterised by abject poverty that often the poor and the destitute who live in impoverished informal settlements have neither opportunities to influence and affect decision-making processes nor access to important centres of power within the corporate economy, he argues that the combined outcome is a considerable social differentiation, which makes it difficult for the poor to act collectively or to organise themselves towards achieving a common rational objective.
According to Eddy (2010:3) The dominant image of informal dwellers is that of a uniformly impoverished constituency living on the margins of the urban economic and social order (Innes et al. 1992:172).This paper challenges this view strongly and demonstrates that informal dwellers are indeed integrated into the urban regional economies.The evidence also shows that informal dwellers represent a population as socially and economically heterogeneous as that which is formally housed.
In 2007, statistics regarding types of dwellings showed that EMM performed quite poorly in the provision of houses in comparison to provincial averages in Gauteng Province as depicted in table 1 below.Source : South Africa Survey (2008/9:568) However, backyard infill shacks are common in many land reform housing projects around the country.The continuum is seen in rural-urban social networks and inmigration.This makes the householders feel obliged to accommodate extended family members or people from their rural villages who would have recently arrived in the city.
Residents in most cases sublet shack space to generate income (Barry 2003:5).This idea was upheld by Bonner et al. (2012:218) in their statement that the sale of township houses prompted large-scale rack-renting as landlords crammed as many shacks as possible onto the stands in order to extract maximum rent from desperate lodgers.The prevailing extreme congestion forced residents to spill out into vacant parcels of land, resulting in the establishment of squatter camps.

Obstacles to Housing Delivery in Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality 151
In the light of the foregoing, it is evident that massive population growth is one of the factors contributing to the failure of EMM to cope with housing demands.Figure 2 gives a perspective on the dynamics of immigration in EMM, which is largely premised on the vast expectation and opportunities the city offers.However, EMM is to be blamed for the lack of strategic planning to envisage the present circumstance, thereby leading to an ever-increasing rental of properties in the city, depleting the little the rural migrants would have gathered significantly.Ultimately in addition to creating a society of social disorder and imbalances of the lower class in the city (Carter 1990:138), this also results in unwarranted population growth in EMM.This paper categorises migrants in EMM in 3 phases: 1) From rural areas, 2) From other urban areas, and 3) Foreigners -both legal and illegal.

Squatter camps
Squatter camps are the most predominant feature of informal settlements.The term 'squatter' implies residents that have no legal right to the land on which they build their shacks or shanties (Power 1993:189).The only land available to them is waste or unwanted land which most often is unused because of environmental problems such as the extreme flooding or water shortage or steepness or slope (Carter 1990:138).
In congruence, Tshitereke (2008:1) argues that the magnitude of this spatial dysfunctionality is clear at social, economical and ecological levels, which remain deep and enduring and attributes this to settlements that are often located on barren grounds; on pavements; along rivers and canals; in areas prone to floods and other hydro-meteorological hazards; on extremely insalubrious sites with health hazards such as sewerage outlets; near or on dump sites; and in areas with little access such as alleys and corridors of buildings -even on rooftops (Tshitereke 2008.1).
The state of massive urban-ward migration of population cannot match the available employment opportunities (Barry 2003:5).More significantly in the present context, the housing available is also totally inadequate and EMM is incapacitated to meeting such massive needs of residents in the area due to shortage of economic resources (Carter 1990:138) and sometimes political will.The issue of squatter camps is used as a bait to win votes in the area by councillors through various campaign promises.This is further emphasized by the pledge of the government of the city of EMM to eliminate informal settlements of which squatter camps are a predominant part, and increase the housing units from 300 000 units a year to 500 000 units a year to which end it has forged partnerships with mines, banks, private developers and communities (Jeffery 2010:354).
Despite that, housing has continued to be a perennial problem in the city of EMM.-the crisis of housing delivery and other basic services is actually a result of the promarket (growth-oriented) policies adopted by the South African government since 1994, one of such was to reduce inflation and government spending to below 4% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).This invariably reduces the amount the government could spend on social needs including housing (Bradley 2003:85).

Government's economic policies
According to Bonner et al (2012:145), from the mid-1990s, South Africa's economic policies were firmly framed within a neo-liberal paradigm, which critics such as, Khan & Thring 2003;Harvey 2000;Datt 2002;Bond 2002;Dyantyi 2010;Habitat & ILO 1995;Bradley 2003 andKnight 2002, pointed out is characterised by the expansion of opportunities and options for private capital accumulation (Bonner et al. 2012:207).In that understanding Habitat and ILO (1995:1) maintain that in many countries, it has been the policies adopted in response to macro-economic trends rather than the trends themselves that have resulted in significant declines in shelter investment to a worsening of housing and infrastructure conditions.However, according to Jeffery (2010) and Bradley (2003), the blames that have resulted in the shortages of housing units in the country and also EMM cannot be placed solely on the apartheid regime, but also on the civilian government which misplaced the objectives of the Growth Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) and the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) projects (Jeffery (2010:255;Bradley 2003:85).Noticeably also is the rate of corruption in the country with the municipalities (EMM included) having their fair share of blames.

Municipal Administration
The administrative staff, support staff, and inspectors also have played significantly contributory roles to the continuing housing delivery obstacles confronting the city of EMM as a result of inefficient, ineffective, lack of proper reporting, lack of proper monitoring and evaluation.This is why Robbins, Bergman, Stagg and Coulter (2008:20) state that it is hard to get high performance service from public servants because they are generally corrupt, lazy, more security oriented and less motivated.

Corruption
According to Cloete and Mokgoro (1995:137) The hierarchical and bureaucratic character of the state according to its ideal ensure accountability but in the implementation especially in Africa in general and SA in particular it has become problematic, needing other measures to such vices (Nathan 2013:1).In EMM some staff members are involved in corrupt practices that include issuing houses to people not on the waiting list, poor quality inspection and granting preference to people with physical cash especially foreigners.These conducts contradict the codes of the public service, chapter 10 of the Constitution of the Republic of SA, the Municipal System Act No32 of 2000, and the performance management acts.According to Cloete (1997:69), every public official should display a sense of responsibility when performing official duties.In other words, the conduct should be above reproach.
Subsidies in housing delivery projects have over the years witnessed roadblocks due to sharp or corrupt practices, in terms of the selection of building contractors and allocation of completed RDP houses (Jeffery 2010:354).However, between February 2010 and January 2012, 63 EMM officials were charged for corrupt practices in the municipality but no one was arrested or detained (City of Ekurhuleni Annual Report (2011/12:225-227).If there is no severe punishment meted to corrupt officials as a deterrent to other would-be corrupters, corruption will never go away.

Human resource management issues
Human Resource Management (HRM) consists of the activities involved in acquiring, maintaining and developing an organization's human resources (Pride, Hughes & Kapoor 1996:295).HRM issues either limit or enhance the strength or weaknesses of organizations (Du Toit et al. 2007:230).It could limit an organization in instances where there is shortage of skilled personnel manifesting from poor recruitment, selection and placement.However, it could enhance an organization through training, conference, Obstacles to Housing Delivery in Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality 155 symposium, and workshops that develop organizational skills and increase the chances of adherence to administrative or organizational procedures that govern work in municipalities.
In similar vein according to Ndaguba (2014) HRM issues enhance the functionality of an organization while reducing it to its barest minimum conflict especially in terms of service delivery.It is Burger's (2010:2) contention that poor service delivery can be blamed on the deployment of political cadres to positions for which they are not qualified.The process followed in this regard is called the spoils system (Botes et al. 1992:8), whereby the appointment of municipal administrators and certain senior public servants is based on loyalty to the ruling party.Van der Waldt and Du Toit (1997:392) argue that such a process has incalculable future economic and social implications for the country and more specifically the public sector, which leads to political bias, inefficacy, inefficiency and ineffectiveness as is the situation in EMM with particular regard to the delivery of housing.

Political and economic variables
Political bias, poverty, unemployment, contraction of the construction industry and affordability are the general factors combined that make up the political and economic variables.The private sector is the main proponent in the provision of housing delivery regulated and supported by the EMM in the city as a result of the high cost in procurement and to ensure that investments are encouraged.According to Cloete (1997:69), this has not achieved the desired impact, resulting from dichotomy and interference, poverty, access to financial institutions, increasing debt profiles of residents, unaffordable housing units, and misalignment of priorities -all as a result of political versus administrative variables.

Misalignment of priorities
It is the researcher's view that the municipality's leadership seem to prioritise impressing their political masters at the expense of their constituencies which results in loss of focus with regards to deliverables.This view is supported by Jeffery (2010:88) in his observation that while the municipal head, the Mayor, is a political attaché, the administration of municipalities is supposed to be independent of any political affiliation, which unfortunately it is not.Furthermore, much current housing policy is dominated by 156 Africa's Public Service Delivery & Performance Review political considerations which have thwarted the formulation of a consistent policy and have ignored basic economic principles (Harvey 2000:300).

Unaffordability
In addition to the other key contributory factors to housing delivery obstacles in EMM is unaffordability by individuals (White paper on housing 1994:9).Earners of low incomes particularly between R2500 -R5000 income groups with their families are likely to remain in squatter camps (South Africa Survey 2008/9:582).Low incomes of the large proportion of South Africa's population imply that many people are unable to afford adequate housing by their means alone (White paper on housing 1994:9), therefore they rely heavily on financial institutions for loans, which further push the individuals to live below the poverty line.Some poorer households with low income are faced with the gloom inability to even get a loan.It has become far more difficult for low-income earners to get onto the property ladder (Fife 2007:36) considering the fact that the minimum government-housing subsidy has been eroded by building inflation and banks are not extending mortgage finance to the very poor who cannot afford even the cheapest and most rudimentary formal dwelling (Jeffery 2010:354).
However, according to the White paper on housing (1994:3), an increased income to lower income groups could have a major impact on the housing sector by converting latent demand for housing into effective demand.In a few instances in EMM, there are situations where water and electricity were not connected in housing units.This is based on the assumption that if the low-income earners are unable to afford a house, holistically, it will be difficult if not impossible to pay water and electricity bills.This defeats the object of adequate housing which according to Mhone and Edigheji (2003:152) refers to a combination of land, services such as the provision of water, the removal of sewage and the financing of these, including the building of the house (dwelling) itself.In complementing the ideas of Mhone andEdigbeji (2003:152), Bond (2002:198) asserts that a house must include sanitary facilities, storm water drainage, a household energy supply, whether linked to grid electricity supply or derived from other sources such as solar energy, convenient access to clean water and access to institutions that could provide funds for these residents.
Obstacles to Housing Delivery in Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality 157

Access to housing finance
One feature common to all informal dwellers is poor access to financial assistance in the form of loans from financial institutions and loan companies and the irregular housing subsidies by employers (Innes et al. 1992:179).Banks have previously been reluctant to invest in townships or new low cost housing developments mainly because of negative perceptions about crime and repayment risks (Bradley 2003:85).The Home Loan disclosure Act that was designed to allow the government to monitor trends within banks was drawn up in response to claims that banks have in the past been treating blacks and low income earners with prejudice (Bradley 2003:85), on account of income disparity which deepens the economic poverty of these dwellers.

Poverty
South African society is largely characterised by extreme poverty (Steenekamp, 2012:124), which is the leading social issue in the continuation of sprawling cities.The rate of natural increase is highest amongst the poorest communities, which means that the poor will constitute an ever-increasing proportion of the total urban population over the next twenty years and way beyond (Napier 1993:22)

Apartheid government and the segregation of housing delivery services
It is argued that the present government is facing tremendous difficulties and backlogs due to the apartheid legacy (Cloete 1995:35).Napier argues that in the 'Classic Apartheid View,' the magnitude of housing problems witnessed in South Africa is as a result of unjust and segregation policies and laws (Napier (1993:24).
The lack of investment on the regions of the country prompted the rural-urban migration, which have created an unprecedented housing shortage and the proliferation of squatter camps (Malpass 1990:5).Barry (2003:10) affirms Malpass ' (1990:5) argument in his consideration that massive overcrowding is a resultant effect of seeking better lives and better economics of trade.For instance, in Katlehong (a township in EMM), the population density in the 1980s stood at 23 to 30 per stand and a survey conducted in Thokoza in 1988 found an incredible 16 to 20 households crammed on to each stand (Bonner et al., 2012:152).
The foregoing facts are indicative that the extent of the present housing delivery obstacles is derived not only from the enormous size of the housing backlog and the desperation and impatience of the homeless but stems also from the extremely complicated bureaucratic, administrative, financial and institutional framework inherited from the previous government (White paper on housing 1994:1).
By its own admission, the ANC in 1994 maintained that the housing problems created by the apartheid government were aggravated by the absence of a coherent national housing policy by the present government (ANC 1994:23).Eddy (2010:3) posits that historical circumstances have continued to affect service delivery with regards to housing while Brutus (2002:1) accepts that housing is a major challenge, he believes that it should not be seen as having its roots in historical factors only as the crises culminating into the shortfall of housing facilities in the EMM, and other basic services as discussed earlier are actually a result of the pro-market (growth-oriented) policies

Conclusion
The resolution of the crisis in housing delivery has profound implications for future political stability in the urban areas, especially EMM.As events in the townships have demonstrated, inadequate housing and urban resources militate against the existence of stable urban communities (Innes et al. 1992:181).In the light of the fundamental differences in analytical approaches to housing theory, the liberal neoclassical view which is the bedrock of this study confirms that government policies, population growth (including migration, urbanization and demographics), municipal administrative issues, political and economic variables are the major obstacles to housing delivery challenges encountered by EMM.The liberal neoclassical vision, in setting out to solve the acute housing shortage by freeing up the housing market, the production of housing will become a major stimulator of economic growth not only in EMM but also in the country and thus solve many economic problems at the same time (Napier 1993:26) and any other challenges hindering housing delivery in EMM and the country at large.Johannesburg: Umanyano Publications.

List of References
view of a single valued commodity.This paper is of the view that there are several factors that hinder housing delivery in EMM.These are divided into outputs and inputs.Outputs consist of housing shortages and distribution.Inputs are categorized into population growth, government policies, municipal administrative issues, and political and economic variables.These outputs are further expanded as:  Population growth -Migration, urbanization and demographics,  Government policies -Reconstruction and development programme (RDP), Growth, employment and redistribution (GEAR) and Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative (ASGI-SA),  Municipal administrative issues -Corruption, Human resources issues including recruitment, induction and training and development,  Political and economic variables -poverty, unemployment, contraction of the construction industry, unaffordability, access to housing finance.

Figure 1 :
Figure 1: Obstacles to the delivery of housing in EMM

(
2012:150) put it, rather than it being more of a function of natural growth or other aspects such as in-migration to urban areas, globalization, development and better opportunities which are critical factors that accelerate population growth in urban centres like EMM.Despite stringent influx control measures to curb African urbanization, Ekurhuleni's population grew steadily towards the end of apartheid (Bonner et al., 2012:150).Natural increase of the population as argued by Napier (1993:23) is another straining factor.According to Van der Waldt and Du Toit (1997:380), issues arising from population growth are related to the capacity of South Africa's limited resources to provide for peoples' needs and that it (population growth) has a ripple effect on the provision of services including housing.For instance, from 1995 to 2005, the demand for 148 Africa's Public Service Delivery & Performance Review housing rose by 45 per cent, which made it difficult for the municipality to keep pace traders, handy men, corporate organizations and individuals seeking a better feature in the Johannesburg area.The area has remained a source of economic influence since 1885 when the first mines were discovered, which brought about in-migration from other regions and suburbs to the area that created opportunities for prospective miners, labourers and entrepreneurs (SA History 2015;Bonner et al., 2012:117).Urbanization has grown far beyond the economic growth pace of EMM which failed to accommodate the increasing population structure.That created an imbalance between economic growth and urbanization which resulted in the spiralling of informal settlements (in the form of slums or Squatter camps) (City of Ekurhuleni 2011:16) -the negative residual of economic growth and urbanization equation.This means that EMM does not have sufficient economic capacity to accommodate the growing interest for land and housing of the geometrically increasing population of the area(Knight 2002).
, migration (the phenomenon of territorial human mobility) has continually placed greater strain on services which have led to higher proportions of people living in informal settlements.The increased mobility of informal dwellers and the rapid formation of shanty towns have increased administrative confusion, institutional restructuring and the absence of clear policy.These have left a vacuum whereby squatter settlement has been able to flourish(Innes et al. 1992:171).Another perennial problem affecting informal settlements has been their location or unstable land as a result of considerable controversy in EMM over the past few years between the council and the occupants whichBonner et al. (2012:218)  clarify in their statement that the council invoked emergency measures to remove squatters from areas it claimed were located on grounds threatened by floods and sinkholes which occupants/residents vehemently opposed until the evictions were carried out by the notorious 'Red Ants' (a private security firm, whose members are dressed in red uniforms employed to evict people).

Figure 2 :
Figure 2: Migration into EMM Proliferation of research outputs(Cloete 1995:35; Bonner et al. 2012:145; Malpass 1990:5;   Eddy 2010:3 andBarry 2003:2) maintain that the government since 1995 faced enormous difficulties and backlogs due to the apartheid legacy, which is the epic centre of segregation and problematization of these housing delivery obstacles.With houses and borders demarcated, halting influx and freedom of movement and association some argue that 20 years is not enough to correct these abnormalities even if the best policies are formulated.This is the reasonBrutus (2002:1)  argues that the problems confronting Obstacles to Housing Delivery in Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality 153 many citizens today including those in EMM are not simply the result of historical factors adopted by the South African government since 1994.WhileEddy (2010:3) is of the view Obstacles to Housing Delivery in Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality 159 that historical circumstances affect service delivery but argues that the problems confronting many citizens today including those in EMM are not simply the result of historical factors but also the present government.This assertion was corroborated by May,Carter and Padayachee (2004:18)  andMhone and Edigheji (2003:23)  who alluded that the government's policies in recent times have resulted in reductions in the budget deficit and inflation against the backdrop of diminished expenditure allocations to social votes including housing.Moreover, in the period just before the end of apartheid rule, home ownership was regarded as a capitalist trap by many black unions who feared that it might engender more conservative ideologies among union membership(Innes et al,   1992:117).
that local government must promote fairness, reasonableness and impartiality and must have no bias as also Obstacles to Housing Delivery in Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality 147 contained in the Municipal Systems Act, and Chapter 7 of the 1996 Constitution of RSA must be accentuated.The notion of inequality is thus a grave one in SA especially systemic inequality, which negates the principles in the Freedom Charter that all citizens must be treated equally with respect and no person, no matter what his or her status is in the community, must be treated fairly and equally.Though inequality, poor housing distribution and shortage in the availability of land are critical elements that underpin the obstacles that inhibit delivery of housing in a sustainable manner, there are some factors that have necessitated these shortages.They are referred to as housing delivery inputs.

Table 3 : Poverty status in Ekurhuleni
Sokupa argues that government has the responsibility to make policies and laws about the rights and responsibilities of citizens and the delivery of government services(Sokupa, 2009:1).It is therefore the duty of the government to ensure that businesses, housing delivery agencies and municipalities are compliant with such laws and policies.