© Kamla-Raj 2016 J Sociology Soc Anth, 7(2): 111-117 (2016) Housing Problems and Programs in South Africa: A Literature Review Tatenda Manomano 1 , Pius Tangwe Tanga 2 and Perpetua Tanyi 3 Department of Social Work and Social Development, University of Fort Hare, Box X1314 King Williamstown Road, Alice 5700, South Africa E-mail: 1 <tatendamanomano@gmail.com>, 2 <tanga8_2000@yahoo.co.uk>, <ptangwe@ufh.ac.za> 3 Department of Social Work, University of the Free State, PO Box/Posbus 339, Bloemfontein, South Africa E-mail: 3 <perpetuaT@ufs.ac.za> KEYWORDS Maladministration. Reconstruction. Development. Informal Settlements. Poor Quality ABSTRACT Although many in South Africa have access to low cost housing from the government, persistent housing problems continue to take center stage among the poor and needy in the country. This paper examines the housing problems in the housing programs in South Africa through a literature review. Findings show that most of the housing problems are caused by corruption and mismanagement while some are due to small housing structures, whereas others are due to the poor housing material, and others are caused by poor location of housing projects, with others resulting from lack of involvement of stakeholders and beneficiaries in the housing projects. Also, factors such as urbanization, unemployment as well as renting and selling of houses by the housing beneficiaries contribute to the housing problems. Researchers recommend program monitoring and evaluation for restrengthening and reorganizing of the housing programs among other things. INTRODUCTION Housing is a necessity and is recognized as a basic human need and right, which is also over- whelmingly considered to be one of the effec- tive indicators of the extent to which poverty has been eradicated in any country (UN HABI- TAT 2003, 2009; Martin et al. 2015). For many decades, people globally have been facing se- vere housing problems, which even to the present day, there are still large proportions of people believed to be living in conditions of se- vere shelter deprivations (UN HABITAT 2003, 2009; Mutume 2004; Zukin et al. 2015). While both developed and developing countries ap- pear to have benchmarked various commitments to address these problems, a great many of these regions are failing to adequately bolster the prob- lems with world bodies publicly declaring it to be a critical concern. Significant pressure sur- rounding housing problems has mounted to the birth of numerous housing legislations, policies and programmatic interventions especially in South Africa. This has seen the introduction of programs such as the Reconstruction and De- velopment Program (RDP), Growth, Employment and Redistribution Program (GEAR), Housing Acts such as the Rental and Mortgage Acts (Mafukidze and Hoosen 2009), and the National Housing Code of 2009 among others. These leg- islations were all espoused to ensure a progres- sive realization of the right to have access to adequate and quality housing by all. To add onto the above, other housing related legislations were also put in place such as water related leg- islations like Water Supply and Sanitation of 1994, National Water Act of 1998, draft National Sanitation Policy of 1996 and the Water Servic- es Act of 108 of 1999 (Monyai 2003). These wa- ter related legislations were in pursuance of the need to safeguard the provision of clean water and the access to all households and houses, respectively. Sanitary requirements were expect- ed to meet health guidelines that make the hab- itation of people as comfortable and healthy as possible. In addition to electricity, an energy white paper was also documented and published advocating for the access of electricity by all houses (Department of Minerals and Energy (DME) 1998). The access to electricity was also erratic due to the evils of apartheid that en- trenched the Black majority from free access to this resource while the Whites were enjoying uninterrupted access. It also meant that they were now able to heat and warm as well as light up their communities while it was a different sto- ry for the Blacks (Republic of South Africa 1994; Midgely 1995; Patel 2005; Hartman et al. 2013). Based on this, all housing projects that were introduced in the post-apartheid era, envisioned