August 14, 2003
By Thomas Thale
THE City of Johannesburg this week unveiled an ambitious programme to eliminate the city's housing backlog by providing a total of 262 144 housing units by the year 2006.
The fast track programme, highlighted at a media briefing on Wednesday, aims to eradicate backyard shacks and informal settlements, upgrade hostels, provide basic infrastructure and housing units and sell and transfer council-owned properties to their occupants.
The programme will benefit mainly poor communities in areas such as Diepsloot, Braam Fisherville, Doornkop and the inner city.
Part of the programme will entail upgrading 13 hostels in the city to provide 10 000 units. Some 10 000 housing units will be built under the People's Housing Process, which encourages owners to build their own houses with government assistance.
A further 6 000 RDP-type houses will be constructed in Braam Fisherville. A total of 41 900 high-rise and high-density houses will be provided as part of major projects such as Cosmo City, Baralink, the Inner City Better Buildings Programme, the Kliptown Regeneration Project, and the Alexandra Renewal Programme. About 6 947 housing units in the inner city will be upgraded.
Shimi Maimela, the director of housing for the City, said people who live under life-threatening conditions in some informal settlements might have to be relocated. Such a relocation programme could affect some 33 625 people in 27 informal settlements spread across the Johannesburg, Maimela said. The programme will see an estimated 60 percent of the 145 073 housing units owned by the City being refurbished. Occupants will then be required to pay market-related rentals for council property.
Johannesburg executive mayor Amos Masondo ascribed the housing backlog to the increasing number of migrants to the city in recent years. "The process of urbanisation raises a number of challenges. It puts pressure on services such as health care, housing, schooling and roads infrastructure," the mayor said.
A report presented by the department of housing, estimates that there are 418 000 backyard shacks in Johannesburg. According to the report, 4 500 people live on the streets and 170 000 families live in 89 informal settlements scattered across the region.
The Johannesburg Roads Agency, Johannesburg Water and City Power are to enter into an agreement to fast track the upgrading of informal settlements, Maimela said.
