OpenUCT :: Browsing by Author "Muyeba, Singumbe"

Browsing by Author "Muyeba, Singumbe"

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Open Access
The contribution of official development assistance to poverty reduction in Zambia
(2009) Muyeba, Singumbe; Lincoln, David
Recent studies have shown that Official Development Assistance (ODA) is able to contribute to poverty reduction through the Public Expenditure Management (PEM) system. The International Financial Institutions (IFIs) have also been channelling ODA in the form of budget support under the Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs). While implementing PRSPs, Zambia, a poor country, showed remarkable improvement in the economic and social sectors. Whether it was ODA channelled for pro-poor expenditure or economic growth that was responsible for these improvements or both could only be ascertained by empirical research. To study this research problem, this undertaking used a quantitative research design. Data on Zambia's requests for ODA were collected from the Zambian national budget and official Estimates of Revenue and Expenditure for the period 1990 to 2008. Statistics on ODA received were obtained from the OECD.stat database, in order to find out the extent to which ODA receipts were a part of Zambia's public expenditure. Public expenditure was then correlated with the IMR, and numerically compared with the HDI and poverty headcount. The research produced a number of key findings. For nine of the fifteen years examined, Zambia received an average of 260.57 per cent of all ODA it requested. There was evidence that the association between pro-poor expenditure and IMR was strong. The HDI and poverty head count improved but the study was inconclusive on whether this was as a result of increased pro-poor expenditure or not. The PEM system was argued to be a vital factor for ODA to reach the poor. Overall, there was strong indication that ODA contributed to poverty reduction through pro-poor public expenditure in Zambia. It was therefore recommended that both donors and the Zambian government ensure that all ODA was targeted at primary and secondary education, primary health care, rural roads, and agricultural extension services.
Open Access
Does low-income homeownership work? The effects of titling among beneficiaries in Cape Town and Lusaka
(2013) Muyeba, Singumbe; Seekings, Jeremy
The provision of real property rights through titling and informal settlements upgrading is widely imagined to have considerable direct and indirect effects on urban poverty. The evidence for such effects is, however, scarce, partial rather than holistic, and subject to methodological difficulties. This thesis investigates the effects of real property rights through two case-studies: the subsidized construction of privately-titled housing for poor people in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, and the private titling of public rental housing in Matero, Lusaka. It examines nine hypotheses drawn from theories about the effects of property rights but goes beyond to strengthen this literature by drawing on another ten hypotheses from theories of homeownership and a categorisation of all hypotheses into economic, human and social capital effects using the asset-based approach. The research design uses both quantitative and qualitative approaches and non-experimental methods of estimation. In Khayelitsha, quantitative analysis reveals that the housing subsidy is associated with better physical health and (counter-intuitively) a higher occurrence of teenage pregnancy. The qualitative analysis suggests that beneficiaries experienced improvements with respect to ownership of consumer durables, housing, children's education and attainment of a higher social status. Apart from status attainment, these improvements can more appropriately be attributed to a better housing environment rather than to stronger tenure rights. In Matero, survey results revealed that titling was associated with significantly higher property values, per capita income and ownership of consumer durables, political awareness and neighbourhood satisfaction. Qualitative analysis shows that beneficiaries experienced higher status, but also a worsening of their tenure security because of the long term costs of titling. In neither case was titling associated with improvements in most of my measures of poverty reduction, supporting the argument that the benefits of titling may be exaggerated through a focus on selected variables rather than a broader set of measures. By most measures, titling had no effect in either of my cases. Substantively, it is likely that poverty in Cape Town and Lusaka is driven so strongly by factors such as unemployment that real property rights make little overall difference to poverty. Methodologically, these findings indicate the importance of using a diverse set of measures when testing whether (and revealing how) real property rights reduce poverty. Scholars need to go beyond the orthodox titling theory and take into consideration hypotheses drawn from theories of homeownership because consideration of a wider range of effects leads to different assessments and conclusions as shown in this thesis.
Open Access
Effects of government housing subsidies in Khayelitsha, Cape Town
(2014) Muyeba, Singumbe
Property rights are widely imagined to have considerable direct and indirect effects on urban poverty. Evidence is however scarce, more so in Southern Africa. This paper examines the effects of property rights in South Africa through a case-study of subsidised privately-titled housing for poor people in Khayelitsha, Cape Town using a difference-in-differences estimation strategy. The results show that housing subsidies are associated with better physical health and (counter-intuitively) higher occurrence of teenage pregnancy. Improvement in health is attributed to better housing quality and environment. The effects of titling extend to human capital, which is understudied in the literature. Scholars thus need to go beyond examining economic effects alone. Since titling showed no effect by most measures, it is likely that poverty is driven so strongly by factors such as unemployment that property rights make little overall difference to poverty.
Open Access
Effects of privatisation of low-cost public rental housing in Matero, Lusaka
(2014) Muyeba, Singumbe
Property rights are widely imagined to have considerable positive effects on urban poverty. However, evidence is scarce, particularly regarding non-economic aspects of property rights. Evidence is also lacking from the Southern African context. This paper examines effects of property rights in Zambia through a case-study of the privatisation of low-cost public rental housing for poor people in Matero neighbourhood of Lusaka city. Data from a household survey (n=623) is used. Ordinary Least Squares and logistic regressions are employed. Altogether, eleven hypotheses are tested. Results show that titling contributes to an increase in property values, household per capita income and wealth, in terms of household durables, and political awareness. There is no effect of titling on employment status of heads of households, employment status of female heads of household, access to credit, home-based investments, membership in voluntary associations, neighbourhood attachment and frequency of volunteerism. The study demonstrates that effects of titling extend beyond economic effects, a sphere which scholars need to explore further. Since titling had no effect by important economic measures, it is likely that poverty in Matero is driven so strongly by macroeconomic factors such as high unemployment in Zambia such that property rights make little difference to poverty.
Restricted
Homeownership and neighbourly relations in poor Post-Apartheid urban neighbourhoods of Cape Town
(Taylor & Francis (Routledge), 2012) Muyeba, Singumbe; Seekings, Jeremy
The South African government has delivered many low-cost houses under freehold homeownership, in part on the assumption that neighbourhoods of homeowners will result in economically and socially viable communities. Drawing on qualitative data collected from four new poor neighbourhoods in post-apartheid Cape Town (South Africa), this article examines how homeowners forge neighbourly relations and construct ‘community’ on the basis of class status, social interactive and sentimental attributes of a sense of neighbourhood. The study found that inter-household familiarity, kin and friendship networks, residents’ perceived commonality and social control and sense of identification with place in new neighbourhoods are generally weak, but with variation between and within neighbourhoods. Acts of mutual assistance and some collective action are attributed to the agency of residents as a mechanism for coping with a common identity of deprivation. The authors conclude that the government’s ambitions to create socially viable neighbourhoods are limited by their homeowning residents’ concern with privacy in the context of wariness of intimacy, distrust, fear/ubiquity of crime and violence, fear of gossip and jealousy, and poor sense of identification with place.
Open Access
Inter-racial attitudes and interactions in racially-mixed low-income neighbourhoods in Cape Town, South Africa
(2010) Muyeba, Singumbe; Seekings, Jeremy
Since the end of apartheid, many scholars of South Africa have shifted from a position of optimism about the prospects for racial desegregation and integration to one of scepticism. Racial segregation and antipathy appear to have deep and enduring roots in South Africa. Very few people live in racially integrated neighbourhoods. Most such neighbourhoods are middle-class or elite neighbourhoods, where integration is due to the rapid upward mobility of some 'African', 'coloured' and 'Indian' people into the middle class and elite. This paper examines a different and more unusual set of people living in racially-integrated residential neighbourhoods: low-income coloured and African people living in atypical new public housing projects, where state-subsidised houses were (unusually) allocated so as to create a mixed neighbourhood. Because people living in Delft South or Tambo Square - two neighbourhoods in Cape Town - did not choose to live in a racially-integrated, the study of their evolving inter-racial interactions helps to understand anew the possibility of transcending racial division in a society like South Africa. We find that residents of these neighbourhoods retain a highly racialised discourse and subscribe to some racial stereotypes. At the same time, however, a variety of positive inter-racial interactions occur, and friendships form, beyond people's expectations.
Open Access
Privacy and the weakness of community: Poor post-apartheid urban neighbourhoods in Cape Town, South Africa
(2011) Muyeba, Singumbe
The unintended outcome of home ownership in new low income neighbourhoods of post-apartheid South Africa has been to constrain community making. This is counter-intuitive as one would expect that home owners who are financially invested in the neighbourhood would be more community-minded than nonhome owners. To explore this counter-intuitive finding, the article examines how home owners in four post-apartheid low income urban neighbourhoods in the city of Cape Town construct their lived experiences of community. Residents strictly adhere to the privacy of home and privacy has constrained the development of various dimensions of community, although unevenly. Privacy emerges from various structuring forces namely the fear of violent crime and criminality, socio-economic deprivation and the continuing salience of racial prejudice. The paper concludes that the residents’ decision to be private is the critical point at which community-making is inhibited. Some dimensions of community are strong in some neighbourhoods, reflecting the resilience of human agency in the face of structural pressures or constraints.
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The social consequences of establishing 'mixed' neighbourhoods
(2010) Seekings, Jeremy; Jooste, Tracy; Muyeba, Singumbe; Coqui, Marius; Russell, Margo
The post-apartheid state has, through the provision of subsidies, fuelled a massive expansion of formal, low-income housing in South African towns and cities. The new public housing neighbourhoods are, however, as segregated racially as their apartheid-era predecessors. Whilst the relative importance of different reasons for the reproduction of racial segregation might be unclear, it is clear that the adoption of different procedures for allocating new housing would result in neighbourhoods that are more diverse or mixed in terms of race and other characteristics. Adopting new procedures and creating more mixed neighbourhoods might have undesirable social, economic and political consequences. Mixed neighbourhoods might be characterized by social tensions and conflict, weak social capital, and hence economic disadvantage and political problems. The Department of Housing and Local Government in the provincial government of the Western Cape commissioned research into the social consequences of establishing more mixed neighbourhoods. ‘Mixed’ was understood as including both racial mixing, and mixing in terms of ‘community of origin’, i.e. of the neighbourhood from which beneficiaries had come.

Browsing by Author "Muyeba, Singumbe"

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