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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.
Delegates came from all seven of the city's regions attended (Photo: Enoch Lehung, City of Johannesburg)
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.
Upgrades at the City Deep hostel
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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