Gauteng govt wants to end shacks with title deeds

Gauteng Human Settlements MEC Paul Mashatile says provincial government will give title deeds to beneficiaries of the province’s programme to give serviced stands to residents to build for themselves.

Speaking at the Land Development Summit in Nasrec‚ Mashatile said provincial government has already begun identifying pockets of land that can be serviced with roads‚ water and electricity and be given free to beneficiaries to build.

“Today we want to begin a journey together of identifying land‚ servicing land and allocating it to people so that they can build for themselves. But we have decided that we are going to do more than that. We are not just going to give people sites‚ but will also give them title deeds‚” Mashatile told delegates on Wednesday.

“When you have a title deed‚ you have a sense of ownership. This‚ however‚ may work differently in the land owned by the royal family … It is important that when you get in that stand‚ you have your document that says that it is your property for you and your family. When you go to the bank and say I want to build in the stand‚ you can show them your title deed.”

The summit is aimed at consulting communities and property developers on government’s plan to give people serviced stands as the RDP programme cannot meet the demands of Gauteng’s ever-growing population.

“We will allocate people serviced stands so that they build houses‚ not shacks … We want proper structures. We want shacks to come to an end‚” Mashatile said.

Mashatile said the programme of giving people title deeds would run concurrently with densification initiatives and RDP programmes.

“I have been to places where people are saying‚ no‚ we don’t want flats. They say there is no space to slaughter. But we are designing these places in such a way that there will always be a place on the ground for people needing space [for events]‚” said Mashatile. “You can’t say that all of us will have our individual sites … In some instances we do have to provide flats‚ so that we may maximise the use of land and space. This programme of serviced stands is not a stand-alone programme. It will work hand in hand with all other programmes.”

Mashatile said the provincial government would continue with its 31 mega housing projects planned for Gauteng. Municipalities in Gauteng signed a pledge supporting the serviced stand programme being implemented by provincial government.