The Department of Human Settlements is mandated with the implementation of Breaking New Ground (BNG) Developments, formally known as Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) Developments. BNG provides flly subsidised houses to low-income families. These houses are owned, not rented, by the beneficiaries.
BNG developments seek to integrate different types of housing (rented, bought and subsidised), with these developments further providing social facilities and amenities such as schools, clinics and retail. It is the policy’s vision that BNG houses be larger than RDP houses, with two bedrooms, a separate bathroom with a toilet, shower and hand basin, a combined kitchen and living room area, and electricity installation (where electricity supply is available in the township). The same conditions apply to qualify for a BNG house as for the previous RDP regime.
The developments have the potential to be designed to be Smart City developments. The Smart City model seeks to address historical spatial planning legacies, and to establish key, replicable levers for low- to middlde-income human settlements in South Africa.