New approach for Johannesburg low cost housing

The Johannesburg municipality is looking at ways of effectively rolling out service delivery, Gauteng human settlements MEC Ntombi Mekgwe said on Tuesday.

"There is a need for interventions that will see investment in jobs, infrastructure, improvement of settlement quality and move away from 'pockets of poverty' -- as defined by the Gauteng Spatial Development Perspective (GSDF)," she said at a service delivery summit in Braamfontein, Johannesburg.

The city had 180 informal settlements, the highest number in the province.

Mekgwe said the high rate of migration into the city placed a lot of pressure on services such as health, education and infrastructure.

Migration also necessitated a change in the housing supply model, she said.

Building in Johannesburg had become problematic as the area was landlocked with little opportunity for expansion and growth.

"Land is expensive. Some projects are not total solutions to the demand, we need aggressive densification models to optimise the land available in good locations," said Mekgwe.

She admitted that while progress had been made in terms of service delivery, statistics highlighted the challenges that lay ahead in terms of overcoming poverty and improving the human development index.

Around 16 percent of households lacked adequate sanitation, 15 percent did not receive municipal electricity and 3.6 percent did not have water.

Mekgwe said around 116,827 families lived in informal settlements and 108,000 families lived in illegal backyard dwellings.

She said her office had a budget of over R1 million to build over 10,000 houses or units and to acquire almost 2000 stands in the next financial year.

Johannesburg mayor Parks Tau said over R30 billion would be spent in the next three years on infrastructure development in the municipality.

Tau said the municipality needed to meet its people's infrastructure needs by ensuring a high level of delivery.

Johannesburg had a high level of delivery compared to other municipalities, but rapid growth was creating problems, he said.

"The population figures have grown by 2.1 million since 2001. That means we had a migration of 13 percent."

Tau said new mechanisms were needed to ensure all residents of the city had access to water, sanitation, and electricity.

"Communities can be partners in the delivering of services. Knowledge of what to do does not always reside with leaders. We need to engage our communities and work with them closely," he said.