 Summit
looks at housing
Millions of homes have been built, but housing is still a
burning issue, participants at a human settlement summit point out.
IN the past 15 years significant progress has been made, with more
than 2,7 million houses built.
These were the words of Executive Mayor Amos Masondo at the Human
Settlement Summit, held at the MTN Expo Centre in Nasrec on Wednesday,
25 November.
Masondo, however, acknowledged that much more still needed to be done.
The summit had the theme "We listen, we deliver". Delegates came from
all seven of the city's regions, and were given the opportunity to air
their grievances and bring their suggestions and solutions to the
table.
Participants included community leaders, ward committee members,
non-governmental organisations, developers, contractors, suppliers of
building materials, property managers, planners, engineers,
architects, lawyers and financiers.
They heard about the City's plans to formalise all 180 informal
settlements in Joburg. The City, led by its housing department and
development planning and urban management department, is engaged in an
all-inclusive process of formalising and regularising all informal
settlements.
"The aim of the formalisation of informal settlements programme is,
among others, to provide certainty to people living in these areas,"
Masondo said. "The regularisation process that has been developed by
the City attempts to provide this certainty within a shorter time
frame. These initiatives, it is hoped, may encourage individuals to
identify relevant resources and invest in these properties."
Other burning housing issues that were discussed included the
redeveloping of hostels into mixed income rental accommodation and
family units.
Hostels
"In the current period, the City is focusing its efforts on those
hostels that accommodate its employees and staff," the mayor
explained. "Developments on the following hostels are currently being
implemented or planned by the City through, our company Joshco
[Johannesburg Social Housing Company]: City Deep, Van Beek, Selby,
Anthea and Klipspruit hostels."
The provincial human settlement department was mainly focusing on the
redevelopment of the public hostels in the city, he said. It had
already started work at Diepkloof, Dube Meadowlands and Mzimhlophe
Women's Hostel in Soweto.
Other housing developments that the City is undertaking or has
undertaken include Cosmo City, Lehae, Kliptown, Vlakfontein,
Alexandra, Orange Farm, Lawley, the Brickfields development in the
inner city, BG Alexander in the inner city, Drieziek Extension 5 and
Pennyville.
Joburg's target is to build 100 000 houses by 2011, which means that
about 40 000 houses must be built in the current and next financial
year.
Community members said they felt empowered by the summit because they
had been given an opportunity to raise their concerns and be part of
the solutions.
Simon Ndlovu, from Alexandra, said: "I think the summit is going well
but people are still crying about housing because housing is a burning
issue but my government is trying its best to deliver good services to
the people."
He added: "Even though the government is doing its best, they must
still go and inspect the houses being built. They must not just pay
the builders and never go back to inspect the quality of work being
delivered."
In conclusion, the mayor said: "We hope to emerge from this summit
more enlightened about how to tackle the complex issues of housing."
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