State-Sanctioned Self-Help and Self-Help Homebuilders in South Africa

Abstract

Formal, state-sanctioned self-help housing for blacks in whitedesignated areas of South Africa is discussed. Based on two case studies, the actual and potential impacts of this form of self-help housing on the participants are examined. It is shown that national settlement policies and local interventions have to some degree constrained the range of user opportunities potentially opened up through the self-help process, and it is argued that the case studies presage the residential future of increasing numbers of South African black people.