Dusty Diepsloot gets a megabuck makeover

There is a buzz in Diepsloot, one of Johannesburg's most overcrowded townships.

A multimillion-rand police station has been built, various cycling lanes have sprung up, as have tarred roads, and two pedestrian bridges connecting different sections of the township are on the verge of completion.

Residents are finally starting to believe that Diepsloot is getting a long-overdue makeover.

The rapid transformation is due to a combination of projects - more than 20, costing billions of rands - being undertaken at once by the national and provincial governments and the City of Johannesburg.

Among these is a plan to build 17000 new homes.

Diepsloot councillor Rogers Makhubele said the building of the first houses in the new Diepsloot south area was expected to start shortly.

"What took much of the time was the installation of the underground infrastructure. The environmental impact assessment studies also took longer than what was initially anticipated," he said.

The cycling lanes have, however, become an extension of pedestrian walkways in the busy streets of the buzzing township.

Cyclist Thabiso Matsekoleng, 27, used the bicycle lane for the first time this week, because he had not known the route was open to him.

"We weren't told that the lane was for cyclists," he said. "Besides, it always has lots of pedestrians using it at any given time of the day."

Matsekoleng said it was "refreshing" to see so much development in Diepsloot, which had been an "ignored informal settlement" for years.

Johannesburg mayor Parks Tau said this week that Diepsloot was "a critical area for development" in the city.

"Diepsloot is now 21 years old and it started as an informal settlement. We are developing it into a habitable area to live in."

Tau said the next phase of the multibillion-rand Rea Vaya bus rapid transit system would be rolled out to link Randburg, Fourways and Diepsloot to the north of the city.

Makhubele said some locals were sceptical, but generally people were excited about the developments.

"Diepsloot has a huge population, so you get people who are worried that they may not benefit from the houses which are being built," he said.

With a population of 130000, Diepsloot has one of the highest densities in Johannesburg with 11532 people per km², according to Census 2011.