Mayor Mashaba recently handed over keys to beneficiaries of newly completed units at the City of Johannesburg’s South Hills development.

Mashaba said, “This marks a momentous occasion, as some of the beneficiaries have remained on the housing waiting list since 1996. As a new administration we are making progressive strides in ensuring that our people receive the dignity of having a home.”

The completion of the development will yield a total of 6204 family and single occupation units for RDP, community residential units, bonded rental and social housing.

“Working together with our coalition partners, we are gradually delivering the change that the residents of our city voted for. Our residents want to see Diphetogo [change], in their communities. This is what we intend to deliver.”

In working towards achieving this, the multi-party coalition government has:

• Invested the largest share of the capital budget for roads, transport, housing, electricity and water, going up from 54% in 2016/17 to 69% in 2018/19
• Allocated R120 million to site and service schemes (double the previous year’s allocation) to provide serviced sites onto which beneficiaries can be settled with full ownership
• Aimed to accelerate the formalisation of informal settlements, by investing R14 million for the purpose of embarking on a consolidated planning programme for informal settlements across the City
• Set aside R50 million for the upgrading of inner city emergency housing and rental stock
• Set aside R46 million for the acquisition of buildings in the inner city for the purpose of creating affordable housing for residents
• Set aside R117 million for the electrification of informal settlements
• Launched free Community Substance Abuse Treatment Centres within the city in order to fight the scourge of substance abuse in communities whilst also launching extended operating hours within our 13 of our clinics, and
• Invested in the increased safety of communities, by recruiting 1500 trainee JMPD officers who will join our law enforcement efforts.

Mashaba commented that he is proud of the strides the City is set to make providing housing through the transformation of the inner city.

“The launch of the 71 Properties Prospectus earlier this month is an indication of my commitment to bringing change to our communities as not only will it create jobs but also provide homes within the inner city.

Together with the ongoing support of our coalition partner, I will continue to work tirelessly to remain accountable on my promise to deliver social housing that instils dignity for residents of this City to live, work and play.”