Community Reinvestment Legislation and Access to Housing Finance in Post-Apartheid South Africa

Publication Date

September 2008

Author(s)

Allison Freeman

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Researchers assess the political and economic factors that led to the failure of South Africa’s reinvestment legislation process.

Using legislation as one of its main tools, the apartheid government provided white South Africans with abundant resources and economic opportunities. Correlated with the opportunities provided to whites was the systematic denial of opportunity to members of other groups. Since 1994, the African National Congress- (ANC-) led government has worked to remedy the effects of apartheid through legislative means. South Africa’s Department of Housing has attempted to use community reinvestment legislation as part of this effort.

This paper assesses the various political and economic factors that led to the failure of South Africa’s reinvestment legislation process. These fall into two categories: extra-legislative factors and factors internal to the process itself that, even should other inhibitions not have existed, might still have undermined South Africa’s reinvestment legislation process.

The paper relies largely on analysis of interviews conducted with South African bankers, government officials, community representatives, and housing and lending specialists.