Several housing projects have been identified in the Soshanguve area to eradicate informal housing settlements. Spearheading Government's response to concerns regarding housing challenges in Tshwane, Human Settlements Minister, Ms Connie September said the government had set aside some R5 billion for this purpose over the next two years.
According to Minister September their plans targeted informal settlements such as Steve Biko, Rethabiseng, Soshanguvhe Extension1, 12 and 27 Garankuwa extension 24 as well as the area called the Schoolside and Ithuseng amongst others.
She said they would do this by providing mixed development comprising some 55 000 houses between 2013 and 2015.
On Sanitation, Minister September said the national Departments of Human Settlements, Water Affairs and Cooperative Governance were working together to ensure provision of proper sanitation which would include eradication of the bucket system.
Addressing concerns regarding poor-quality houses, the Minister encouraged residents to supply her department with names of areas with such houses in order to ensure that companies involved in such shoddy work were blacklisted in future.
"Government can no longer afford to spend millions on fixing houses with defects caused by shoddy work. This money can be used elsewhere and that is why we want to ensure these companies are blacklisted, never to do business again with our government".
For people earning more than R3500 but less than R15000 who did not qualify for an RDP house or a bank housing bond, the Minister said government had a programme called Gap housing where they could be assisted. Municipalities should embark on awareness drives to ensure that people falling in this category knew how to access the Gap programme.
On infrastructure, Municipal Mayoral Committee Councillor Joshua Ngonyama said the municipality had allocated R890m to upgrade roads, provide storm water drainage and install proper sanitation. Mr Ngonyama however said these projects would begin in 2016.
Responding to complaints that residents did not have title deeds, the municipality said they were busy with this process and had already issued 500 title deeds to Winterfield residents and 5000 elsewhere in Soshanguve. Residents who had not yet received their title deeds were asked to exercise patience as they turn was on the way.
To help speed up the housing rollout, the municipality said 10 000 serviced stands were issued to the community of Mamelodi and plans were afoot to replicate this to other parts of Tshwane, including sections of Soshanguve.
All the three spheres of government assured community members of the government's commitment to prioritise vulnerable groupings and endeavour to provide tailor-made services. The housing demand database would still be used to allocate houses and those illegally occupying houses would be "reprimanded".
Temba Gubula
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