October 25, 2002
By Thomas Thale
THE countdown has started for construction work to begin in historic Kliptown under the massive R375-million government-funded development project.
The City of Johannesburg this week approved contractors who will undertake the first phase of the project - the servicing of about 1 272 sites. A further 1 300 sites will be serviced in the second phase. The council will contribute R14-million to the project.
The servicing of sites consists of "the laying of water and sewer main and house connections", the council said in a statement. The provision of these amenities will bring to an end the use of chemical toilets and communal taps in the area.
This council endorsement has cleared the way for work to begin on site, possibly "before the end of the year", according to Dave Cheesman, spokesman for HAD Services, a company contracted to manage the Kliptown project for the city. "The first phase will take place in the unoccupied space north of Union Road. Once the houses have been built, people will move into the finished units to make way for the next stage to commence," he explained. "As people move into their new houses, existing settlements will be vacated, allowing the housing project to develop in a staged manner."
The Gauteng provincial government and the City of Johannesburg last year announced the ambitious Kliptown Development Project to upgrade the area and uplift the standard of living for its residents.
The project will see some 6 900 housing units being built in the area by 2005. The main beneficiaries of this scheme will be people who are South African citizens and earn less than R3 500 per month. The figure of 6 900 is based on the data of residents captured in 1997 by the city and recent surveys conducted by HAD, said Cheesman.
Other aspects of the development are: the clearing of the nearby Klipspruit River, the establishment of a market for informal traders, the construction of a taxi rank, the building of a monument and a museum and the upgrading of roads.
Kliptown is the oldest settlement in Soweto and a site where the Freedom Charter was adopted as a guiding document of the African National Congress at the Congress of the People held in 1955. Many of its houses are dilapidated and parts of the area are covered with informal settlements where people stay in shacks made of corrugated iron sheets.
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