Housing in South Africa: Policy Implementation vs. Municipal Capacity: The Case of uMshwathi, a Rural Municipality in Kwazulu Natal

Rapid urbanisation has dominated the world over the past decades, with more than half of the world population living in urban areas. This has had various negative impacts, such as extreme poverty, insufficient infrastructure and services, environmental deterioration, and informal and slum settlements, particularly in developing countries as South Africa. Accordingly, some of the development challenges include the need to provide jobs, basic services and housing. The UN-Habitat recommends that governments must assume the responsibility to deliver houses and services as per peoples' needs. The question that forms the basis of this book is whether all local government municipalities have the relevant capacity to undertake their housing functions independently. Also, due to the South African government advocating for the building of local government capacity, a further question is raised as to what training for municipal housing officials is required to carry out the housing function? The empirical research was undertaken in the uMshwathi Local Municipality, a rural area within the KwaZulu-Natal Province of South Africa. The book concludes with proposals for building housing capacity.