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Culture should not hold back progress on housing Luzuko Pongoma, The New Age, Johannesburg, 24 October 2014 The topic of African culture versus modernisation seems to have a way of rubbing people up the wrong way Modernisation is sometimes used as a scapegoat when things go wrong, while culture is sometimes used as a reason when people refuse to accept a different and usually a new way of doing things. "Colonialism, Western education, religion, culture and civilisation, apartheid and foreign ideologies have all conspired to wreak havoc on African cultures and civilisation," wrote Holomisa in his book, According to Tradition, echoed at the back of my mind when the residents of Somalia Park, near Vosloorus in Ekurhuleni were airing their views at an imbizo hosted by the Gauteng department of human settlements. Longtime residents rejected the possibility that the government will build, "RDP flats" for those who qualify, saying it was not cultural "to stay on top of another person". They questioned how they would carry the coffin of a loved one who had died on the second floor, for instance. They also said flats were too modern and they wanted the "old RDP houses". Some even questioned how they would slaughter animals to offer for their ancestors. Human settlements MEC Jacob Mamabolo told the residents of an independent study which showed that part of the land their informal settlements were built on was dolomitic and therefore unsuitable for residential housing. Mamabolo said that the alternative of building high-rise structures had to be considered to accommodate all of them in the land they occupied. One may argue that the residents of Somalia Park tried to avoid the modernity trap and wanted a house with a yard as they had grown to know. The questions were all valid and deserved attention, but are we not using culture/tradition to reject the unknown? It should be noted that the building of RDP flats is relatively new. Most people who live in informal settlements have been exposed to a lifestyle of among others, rural homes, old township houses and the recent RDP houses of which all have a form of a yard that can be regarded as private space. The idea of going a floor up to reach your home does not sound familiar or palatable. But a number of factors have to be taken into consideration in respect of Somalia Park and similar locations in Gauteng. Gauteng is the smallest province in the country and has the largest population according to census 2011. At least 23% of the land surface of Gauteng is dolomitic and an estimated 5 million people live on dolomite land. Data show that at least 51% of the land surface in the Ekurhuleni metro is dolomitic. The facts make it hard to find alternative land for people of Somalia Park in order for them to avoid modernisation and continue with their culture. To move them to the outlying areas of Gauteng that are not dolomitic would also perpetuate urban sprawl. Residents will be remote from their places of employment, children will have to change schools and this will have negative financial implications for most of them. Is then not time for our African culture to coexist with modernisation? Rejecting development because it is not according to our culture will not reverse the land from being dolomite nor will it improve the bad conditions that include not having running water for the residents of Somalia Park. Luzuko Pongoma works for the Gauteng department of human settlements and writes in his personal capacity From: http://tnaepaper.co.za/ -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
