Renovation of Johannesburg hostels to start soon

After years of negotiations, living in increasingly derelict buildings and facing life-threatening situations, people living in hostels in Gauteng will get some dignity back.

The provincial department of human settlements has reached an agreement with the leadership of the hostels, the izinduna, to begin renovating these structures.

Initially, the African National Congress-led government wanted to wipe out the hostels altogether as they represented apartheid spatial planning.

This stance frustrated previous efforts to extend government-sponsored housing to hostel residents.

Keith Khoza, spokesperson for the Gauteng department of human settlements, explains the breakthrough.

“The first process is to do maintenance at these hostels. The second one is that there is a view among hostel-dwellers that not all of them want family units. In the meetings we have had, some of them said they were just happy with the current system of having a bed in the hostel because it is less expensive. [This is] because they have responsibilities back home with families and houses,” he says.

The department owns six hostels located in the Johannesburg CBD: George Goch, LTA, MBA, Murray & Roberts, Jeppe and Denver hostels. Other hostels in the province are managed by municipalities. 

The money spent by the department on the hostels under its care differs each year as it addresses faults on an ad hoc basis. For the current financial year, R11-million has been allocated to address faults, the department says.

These hostels are highly overcrowded. They have 9,695 beds that accommodate about 30,000 people. Some share beds, some use beds at different times, and some simply sleep in shifts, the department explains.

Now officials have a range of plans to cater for the different needs of the people living in the hostels. Habitable and safe parts of the structures will be renovated. This will allow those who still want to have just a bed to keep living in a hostel set-up.

“Those who want family units and do qualify for [government] subsidies will then be considered to be allocated to the family units … If we take them to family units, some will benefit from a standard state subsidy or an RDP [house] for those who qualify,” says Khoza. “There are those who may want to rent family units, which is a different subsidy band.

“Those who want to stay in the hostel will be paying a certain amount towards the maintenance of the structures. It is difficult to tell now. We have set up a committee with them that will look at that detail [of the amount to be paid].”

Khoza says the discussion about rent will take into consideration the improved infrastructure, the cost of maintenance, and affordability.

Previously, the government provided family units in Soweto, but these were too expensive (about R700 a month) for the hostel dwellers and remained unoccupied, ultimately being vandalised.

“They [hostel dwellers] were saying they are willing to pay provided the conditions in the hostel are improved and more habitable,” Khoza says.

He adds that the department will redesign the hostels to meet the improved dwelling guidelines set by the government.

“The cost of renovating the hostel itself and changing the structure is going to be a technical process. In the beginning there is R10-million that has been pledged for the work that needs to be done in the short term.”

When the work is completed, the hostels will be managed and maintained by the cities where they are based.

The first hostel to benefit from this programme is Thokoza Hostel, which suffered severely during the political battles that followed the unbanning of the ANC.

Elijah Mtshali, 79, arrived at the hostel in 1963 as a 24-year-old. He is relieved to hear of the new government plans.

“We are just happy that finally the government is not going to demolish all hostels and get rid of them,” he says.

“That was our contention with its plans. Now we know that those who want to stay in the hostel set-up will be allowed to do so. We don’t have a problem with paying rent if the place has been upgraded.”