Here's how Johannesburg plans to upgrade informal settlements

Human settlements MMC for Johannesburg, Mlungisi Mabaso, believes that upgrading informal settlements and redeveloping hostels will help solve the city's housing problems.

Mabaso told TimesLIVE that the city had a backlog of 480,000 people on the housing waiting list but they had identified even more people  in need of housing.

“Our estimate is above half a million, with those in the informal settlements and hostels who have not yet applied,” he said.

He said the department has recognised 318 informal settlements in the city but there were other settlements that are yet to be recognised.  

“In the end, we want to recognise all of them,” he said.

The city plans to upgrade the informal settlements in three phases, with 10 already in the third phase.

Phase one involves the auditing and counting of households and infrastructure in the informal settlements. This is the stage where a feasibility study is done to check if the land would be suitable for development or if dwellers will be relocated. We are doing that to a number of informal settlements in the city,” he said.

The second phase will involve the development of a layout plan, resettling and realignment of shacks, opening access roads and placing interim services such as gravel roads and water taps on stands.

The third phase involves electrification, installing permanent water taps and flushing toilets with sewer lines, and the construction of roads and township establishment.

“When we do that with the approved layout plan, we are able to then provide stands, formalise the area and provide these permanent services to a number of people."

Among the informal settlements set to be upgraded this year are Slovoville, Matholesville, Tsepisong, Roodepoort, Zandspruit, Klipspruit and Hartbeesfontein.

“These are for this financial year. In the next we will have other ones. Those that are on phase two will move to phase three and those in phase one will move to phase two,” Mabaso said.

He said his priority was to address applicants who applied for houses in 1996 and 1997 and were still on the waiting list.

“You have 36,000 approved subsidies for 1996 that have not yet been allocated and 15,000 applicants for 1997 who have not yet been allocated. Once you have addressed that, you have done justice. Once you have formalised informal settlements and redeveloped hostels, you have dealt with 80% of the problems,” he said.

He said that all the stakeholders within the city, including City Power, Joburg Water and Pikitup, are involved in the process.

Mabaso said he had discovered challenges at old age homes around the city, including security and illegal tenants.

He said the issue of security was a result of insourcing.

“When insourcing was done there was no proper co-ordination with the departments on how their properties would be protected and how much security is required per facility,” he said.

He said the city was working with private security companies so they do not compromise the safety of senior citizens.

“There are illegal tenants; people who do not qualify in terms of age, others are staying with their families, the children. We have engaged with our legal directorate to say we need to obtain eviction orders for those that are residing illegally,” said Mabaso.

“There were also issues of maintenance and it's a matter of resources  because we do not have sufficient budget to maintain all our facilities at once.”

He said some facilities are deteriorating, but they are being attended to.  

TimesLIVE

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