It is with great sadness that the Publishers announce the closure of this publication due to several reasons but mainly due to the arduous, lengthy and frustrating process of dealing with all levels of government which neither seem to grasp the urgency nor the need to supply housing to the people of this country.
Certainly, there are pockets of excellence in granting title deeds and City of Cape Town in particular comes to mind, private bodies like Khaya Lam as well but by and large the processes created to speed up the process have certainly not improved. Certainly, private developers are doing the best they can, but the same difficulties continue to dog them. CAHF sets a fine example on the Africa scene where sadly SA falls way behind most African countries.
Of course, the naysayers will state what we all know that this situation was around under apartheid and consequently the situation is not an easy fix.
The yes sayers will argue that something should have happened since the heady days of 1994 but evil and greed crept in. This is a well-known matter, but the bottom line is that we are a commercial business and have certainly tried our level best to involve ourselves with industry, even supporting DTIC with their Construction in Timber initiative involving stakeholders including both SABS and DWS – neither of which attended one meeting. Obviously these two are critical to moving forward but again we experience a disconnect in achieving what is right for the people.
STBB wrote many an article reinforcing the poor state of the legal process which all of us are aware of now.
As a business we need to look at our resources and where we place them and the decision is to pour both human and financial resources into media that adds value to the industries we have served for decades like Mining, HEVAC, Refrigeration, Plant and Plumbing and the media platforms we work with.
Our thanks to those who did support SA Affordable Housing and those who will continue to fight this good fight to supply housing to those that were promised housing by the politicians who have failed to deliver in any meaningful manner.
Image by Kevin Phillips from Pixabay
