Community schemes, including sectional title, homeowners’ associations, retirement housing schemes, share block companies and housing cooperatives, have become a multi-trillion rand sector in need of transformation.

This is according to Lesiba Seshoka, Executive Corporate Affairs at the Community Schemes Ombud Service (CSOS), who was speaking ahead of the first CSOS Indaba for stakeholders in Johannesburg.

With an estimated 70,000 community schemes in South Africa and a growing trend for living in gated communities, community schemes have become a significant economic sector in their own right. Seshoka notes that community schemes employ a range of service providers, including security, garden services, audit services and managing agents. “In terms of representation, this sector is behind all other sectors in South Africa,” he says. “Some opportunities are shared amongst friends and families representative of people who live in particular schemes. Much more needs to be done to bring all people aboard. We need to partner and work together to promote inclusivity.”

Seshoka says transformation within community schemes doesn’t apply only to financial opportunities, but also to the way in which owners in community schemes live together. 

“You can’t impose a single culture into communal living, so tolerance is important. You have to sensitise the industry to be aware of cultural differences that make us a rainbow nation, and which could cause disputes between neighbours.  You need governance that is self-aware of cultural differences, and possibly also has the ability to resolve cultural disputes within communities, without having to escalate them to the ombud.”

He notes: “Like we saw with the transformation of the mining sector and universities, transformation isn’t something you can just impose. It requires a metamorphosis in the culture, rules and way of life.”

Seshoka will address the free CSOS Indaba on 3 and 4 August at Riversands in Fourways, on transformation within community schemes.

The Indaba, themed: ‘Governance and Regulation: Shaping the Future of Community Schemes’ , will address a range of problems experienced in community schemes and educate stakeholders on better governance and CSOS’s role in supporting community schemes.