By Matome Sebelebele
GOVERNMENT has committed to increasing the pace at which it is moving to improve the lives of many South Africans who are still victims of poverty. This is the message Provincial and Local Government minister Sydney Mufamadi delivered to residents of the poverty-stricken Alexandra, north of Johannesburg, today, during a visit to one of the country's oldest and poorest townships.
Mr Mufamadi, Johannesburg Executive Mayor Amos Masondo and Gauteng housing MEC Paul Mashatile paid the local residents, hostel dwellers and small businesses an unexpected visit as part of National Imbizo Focus Week this week. Government has set aside this week to listen to the plight of people while educating them about existing business opportunities and the need to apply for Identity Documents to enable them to access, amongst others, services such as social grants.
During their stopover at a local informal market at the nearby Wynberg business precinct, hawkers told the authorities of their lack of formal facilities to trade and safely store their products. 'We going to open (a market place) and hopefully we will try and accommodate as many of the traders as possible,' Mr Masondo told traders pointing to the recently-demolished buildings nearby, where authorities will be building a new business complex and taxi rank soon. Authorities say officials are busy turning paperwork into concrete groundwork, which they say will see the Wynberg business center transformed into a viable business hub.
The area is a hive of activity with traders selling anything from traditional medicine to clothing and cell phones. At the Helen Joseph women's hostel, the leaders inspected the facility's communal rooms, toilets and kitchen, which the dwellers say are unhygienic and need an urgent facelift. In this regard, the authorities committed to upgrading the facility, with Mr Mashatile informing the dwellers of the now transformed family units, that authorities had approved and appointed a contractor to begin work on soon.
'Over the last two years, there has been a lot of planning on the whole of Alexandra renewal. But we now entering the implementation phase and for this hostel in particular, the contractors have been appointed...so it means work is now commencing,' explained Mr Mashatile Authorities are currently running a multifaceted R1.3-billion project aimed at rejuvenating the historic Alexandra Township, which was once home to leaders such as Nobel Prize Laureates Nelson Mandela and Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
The area, which is evidently undergoing development with new schools and police visibility, would see the delivery of low-cost housing, roads, water, sanitation, clinics, magistrate offices as well as public works jobs that would expand existing infrastructure and services. Alexandra is part of the Presidential Urban Renewal Programme that was announced by President Thabo Mbeki in his State of the Nation Address three years ago. As part of the renewal plan, government has since moved families who used to live along the crime-ridden and germ-infested Jukskei River to the nearby Diepsloot and Braamfisherville areas for better settlement.
Meanwhile, the three leaders are currently sitting for a public meeting with the locals to listen and share notes on ways to defeat poverty and underdevelopment.
- BuaNews
