SLUM ABOLITION

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIV, Issue 196, 2 August 1934, Page 5

SLUM ABOLITION

Move in South Africa South Africa is making its most determined effort to abolish slums in a bill now before Parliament, The towns in which clearance schemes arc planned liin the slums Bill are Bloemfontein, Capo Town, Durban, East London, Johannesburg, Pietermaritzburg, Port Elizabeth and Pretoria. The list may be added to by proclamation at anytime. The declaration of a slum is to be made on the report of the medical officer of health and investigation of the property by the local authority or a committee. The owner has full opportunity of showing good cause why his property should not be declared a slum and has the right of appeal to the Minister of Public Health. The bill gives powers to local authorities to acquire by agreement or expropriation any land on which the premises have been declared a slum and provides the basis on which compensation will bo assessed (not more than 20 per cent, in excess of the land valuation). Provision is further made for the ejection of any persons unlawfully occupying or entering slums, and no exemption is to he granted on the ground of lack of accommodation. Among the chief provisions of the bill are that no room wholly or partly used by human beings for sleeping shall be occupied by a greater number of persons than will allow 400 cubic feet of free air space and 40 square feet of floor space for each person aged 10 years or more and 200 cubic feet of free air space and 20 square feet of floor space for each person less than 10 years of age. No dwelling is to be occupied by such a number of persons that the sleeping accommodation is insufficient to allow of persons of opposite sexes over 12 years of age, other than persons living together as husband and wife, being segregated in separate rooms. In the case of slum clearance on a large scale it is the intention of the Minister of the Interior to utilise the services of the central housing boards.