By 1990 the government had realised that influx and settlement control were impossible to implement - and that it had fallen so far behind in the provision of land and basic services that the safety and health of communities in Cape Town were threatened. The Provincial Government decided to explore possibilities, and invited representatives of political and civic organisations within the most disadvantaged communities to join it and representatives of local government in discussions. Never before had this been attempted in South Africa.

Only one process could possibly work - a genuine sharing of ideas regarding the attainment of a common goal. The integrity of the process would be paramount, as trust was in short supply. The definition of the product would have to take second place. Thus began the Policy Phase, which had no time limit but was completed to the satisfaction of every party represented in the Policy Committee by September 1993. The Policy Phase culminated in the definition of the project and adoption of the iSLP Principles by which the project would be implemented. It was agreed that the Provincial Government should be the responsible authority, but that an independent iSLP Coordinator be appointed to ensure continued synergy and the maintenance of the iSLP Principles.

Only then did the Implementation Phase begin, very slowly at first, as new sets of protocols, involving as many as 30 separate communities and diverse other stakeholders, had to be designed, agreed and tested. This vulnerable stage was seen by some members of the Policy Committee as an opportunity to hijack the project, ostensibly on behalf of "the community". However, their appeal to the national Minister of Housing had a dramatic reverse effect - not only was their claim rejected and the Policy Committee summarily disbanded, but in December 1994 the project was proclaimed a Special Integrated Presidential Project of the new government's Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) and provided with a generous allocation of funding. As a result there was a huge renewal of commitment and mobilisation of resources that has sustained the iSLP through the first eventful years of South Africa's transformation. It has been referred to as one of the most complex large human settlement projects in the world.

The fact that it is still delivering, long after its genesis in late 1990, is due primarily to the sustained integrity of its participative processes.

The Beneficiaries
The iSLP was conceived primarily in order to address the housing needs of a specific constituency - the shack-dwelling population in and around the long-standing "Black townships" of Nyanga, Guguletu and Langa. Most households resided in informal settlements, but many were accommodated in shacks located in the backyards of township houses. It was agreed at an early stage that those in informal settlements would be given priority, on account of the relatively abysmal and unhealthy conditions pertaining in those areas. Backyard dwellers would be given priority in the development of any newly released areas within the townships - such as the "buffer strips" created by the urban planners of the old apartheid regime.

The target group is from the poorest sector of the metropolitan population. 97% of beneficiary households earn less than R1 500 (US$ 214 per month as at May 2000 rate of exchange). As such they have the advantage of access to the largest available housing subsidy - a capital grant of R16 000 (from 1 April 1999) plus 15% premium to compensate for difficult soil conditions. Among their many disadvantages is an inability to obtain access to credit. As a consequence the housing product delivered by the iSLP has been tailored to the maximum housing subsidy available.

One significant component of the iSLP has a different beneficiary mix. During the Policy Phase it was decided that the southernmost 50% of the undeveloped land in Southern Delft would allocated to the iSLP. The intention was that the northern sector would be developed by the erstwhile House of Representatives as an extension of its housing programme for the "Coloured" community. However, with the abolition of racially segregated institutions and policies in 1994 the iSLP was given responsibility for developing 100% of Southern Delft, on condition that the "Coloured" community would still be able to gain access to 50% of the sites within each phase - i.e. instead of creating racial ghettos north and south each phase of the Southern Delft project would be mixed. With further institutional changes it is now the case that 50% of beneficiaries are from the iSLP communities and 50% are nominated by the Tygerberg local authority, in which Southern Delft is located. Although the development of Southern Delft has been subject to threats to the project in the form of illegal occupations, the community, which must be one of the most racially mixed in the metropole, has coped well.