June 13, 2005
By Ndaba Dlamini
PEOPLE living in Johannesburg's informal settlements and backyard shacks are set to benefit from a number of plans to provide poor people with adequate shelter within a safe and healthy environment by 2009.
For starters, the City of Johannesburg, together with Gauteng, has invested more than R90-million into the regeneration of Kliptown, in Soweto.
Construction of 1 400 units in Kliptown is on course to accommodate most of Kliptown's 45 000 residents, many of whom live in shacks. Housing beneficiaries will also come from other townships such as Orlando, Pimville and Klipspruit.
The Cosmo City project, an integrated housing development scheme, is another priority in Johannesburg's drive to eradicate informal settlements by 2008 and provide housing to city dwellers. It should provide 12 500 housing units by end of 2007.
In 2004, the City of Johannesburg approved a consolidated list of 189 informal settlements and housing projects within its boundaries. It planned to provide all informal settlements with essential facilities like roads, streetlights and community centres. Where this was impossible, new townships would be established.
Informal settlements
Registration of households within informal settlements, which was scheduled to be complete in February 2005, is still under way. The registration process is aimed at verifying the list and size of existing informal settlements.
Gauteng, and Johannesburg in particular, has experienced a marked increase in the number of new informal settlements. This has been attributed to rapid urbanisation, exacerbated by rising unemployment and continued marginalisation of the urban poor.
According to Willem Odendaal, the chief operations officer in the Gauteng housing department, 450 000 people live in the province's informal settlements. The housing waiting list for Gauteng continues to grow, with about 445 000 people on it already. About 300 000 people across Johannesburg are registered on the list.
However, there are several plans to house these people within the next four years. Speaking at a function on Friday 10 June to outline the Gauteng housing department's delivery plans for the current financial year, housing MEC Nomvula Mokonyane said the department would go all out to formalise those informal settlements that were capable of being formalised, within the next four years.
"There are currently 392 identified informal settlements in Gauteng and 50 percent of these are viable for formalisation. This means that top structures can be built on the land, with the exception of those settlements that are located on unsuitable areas. However, we are working with municipalities to identify land for these people for relocation."
Hostels
The department also planned to de-densify existing locations, redevelop all hostels in Gauteng, regenerate urban areas through integrated development strategies and seek and provide alternative accommodation.
"Overall increases in the waiting list and the housing backlog translates to a funding need of approximately R2,8-billion over a five-year period," said Malindi Nembambula, the acting head of the Gauteng department of housing. "By allocating an additional R2,8-billion to housing funding, the department will succeed in eliminating the current backlog related to water and sanitation provision by 2008."
To counter the formation of new informal settlements and eradicate backyard shacks, 6 137 housing stands in Johannesburg north and 18 996 housing stands in Johannesburg south will be developed during the 2005/2006 financial year.
"By June this year, the registration process of informal settlements will be completed and the data gathered will be used for planning purposes," Mokonyane said.
Alexandra
The provincial housing department was also implementing projects in Alexandra and Kliptown. These projects formed part of the department's aims to revitalise "historically ravaged urban localities" through harnessing opportunities to stimulate local economies and alleviate poverty, according to Mokonyane.
Alexandra, one of Johannesburg's oldest townships, has a population of 350 000 people. It is predominantly residential, with about 4 060 formal houses and 34 000 shacks. It is highly densified, with on average four households for every 40mē. There is a lack of basic bulk infrastructure and services that poses health hazards to the community. In old Alexandra, approximately 70 percent of households accommodate more than 10 people.
The Alexandra Urban Renewal Project was the pilot project for the provincial housing department. An urban management system was being implemented by the various organs of government to turn Alexandra "into an integrated, liveable environment with socio-economic amenities, including water and sanitation", Mokonyane said.
"The intergovernmental co-operation on Alexandra is engaging with various stakeholders in ensuring that the high unemployment levels are addressed through skills training and creation of job opportunities, necessary to stimulate the local economy, and improve the affordability levels," she said.
Several pockets of land in Alexandra had been identified and the construction of 1 403 houses in Extension 7 had been planned. Construction began in April 2005 and was expected to be completed later this year.
Cosmo City
"The provincial and local authorities in Gauteng will also call on the private sector to chip in to alleviate the housing shortage. We plan to build as many houses as possible that respond to the constitutional provision that everyone must have access to adequate housing," Mokonyane said.
In effect, the provincial housing department had come up with affordable housing designs that provide privacy and space, she said. "There are 36mē housing plans that reflect mixed income. We are going to construct houses that consist of at least two bedrooms. The current Cosmo City development north of Johannesburg will form the pilot project for the development of such housing.
"The department's objective in developing and implementing its goal of building sustainable and vibrant communities is to promote the construction of quality homes and the creation of thriving communities while at the same time attempting to turn around the apartheid spatial development patterns that we have inherited," Mokonyane said.
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