Today, I am pleased to officially hand over keys to beneficiaries of newly completed units at the City of Johannesburg’s South Hills development.
This marks a momentous occasion, as some of the beneficiaries have remained on the housing waiting list since 1996. As a new administration we are making progressive strides in ensuring that our people receive the dignity of having a home.
The completion of the development will yield a total of 6204 family and single occupation units for RDP, community residential units, bonded rental and social housing.
Incidentally, today also coincides with the 2 year anniversary of my coming into office and the multi-party coalition government’s efforts to bring change to the poorest residents in our City.
Under previous administrations, the City was run in an environment where corruption was allowed to fester and neglect of the City’s infrastructure was the order of the day. Indeed, upon taking over government, we found a City with an infrastructure backlog of R170 billion.
In addition to this, the City also faces a housing backlog of almost 300 000 units which are required to provide quality low-cost income housing for our previously forgotten people.
Working together with our coalition partners, we are gradually delivering the change that the residents of our city voted for. Our residents want to see Diphetogo [change], in their communities. This is what we intend to deliver.
In working towards achieving this, our multi-party coalition government has:
- invested the largest share of the capital budget for roads, transport, housing, electricity and water, going up from 54% in 2016/17 to 69% in 2018/19
- allocated R120 million to site and service schemes (double the previous year’s allocation) to provide serviced sites onto which beneficiaries can be settled with full ownership
- aimed to accelerate the formalization of informal settlements, by investingR14 million for the purpose of embarking on a consolidated planning program for informal settlements across the City
- set aside R50 million for the upgrading of inner city emergency housing and rental stock
- set aside R46 million for the acquisition of buildings in the inner city for the purpose of creating affordable housing for residents
- set aside R117 million for the electrification of informal settlements
- launched free Community Substance Abuse Treatment Centres within the city in order to fight the scourge of substance abuse in communities whilst also launching extended operating hours within our 13 of our clinics, and
- invested in the increased safety of communities, by recruiting 1500 trainee JMPD officers who will join our law enforcement efforts.
These are just some of the changes we are bringing to the City for the benefit of our residents.
Unfortunately, there are those who would seek to prevent the change which the residents of our city have voted for. Today’s events was marred by attempted disruptions, orchestrated by the ANC in order to prevent today housing hand over.
Indeed, the ANC attempted to incite violence and community unrest through the following message distributed to the community. It reads:
“Cdes we all have to be on the street by 3:00am if we want this to succeed every Cde that need a house please report to South Hills, Nephin road we are going to wait for the so called Mashaba and his friends so we can teach them a lesson we are not stupid we know what they want to do they have failed as a stolen administration.”
To bolster their efforts, the ANC also sought to distribute a pamphlet encouraging residents in the area to unlawfully occupy houses within the development. This pamphlet is attached to this statement.
The lawlessness which is being promoted by the ANC must be condemned in the strongest terms. Once again the ANC has shown that is more concerned with their own political interests than ensuring that those who have been without a home since 1994 receive that which they deserve.
As a new administration, we believe the rule of law must be respected at all times and have thus referred the matter to police authorities in the area.
This said, I am also proud of the strides the City is set to make providing housing through the transformation of the inner city.
The launch of the71 Properties Prospectus earlier this month is an indication of my commitment to bringing change to our communities as not only will it create jobs but also provide homes within the inner city.
Together with the ongoing support of our coalition partner, I will continue to work tirelessly to remain accountable on my promise to deliver social housing that instills dignity for residents of this City to live, work and play.