The Gauteng Human Settlements Department will officially launch the Mega Housing Projects, which will see an unprecedented radical transformation in housing and spatial planning in the province.

This follows the announcement of Gauteng Premier David Makhura’s strategy of radical transformation, modernisation and reindustrialisation (TMR) of the province.

The launch will take place at the Gordon Institute of Business Science in Johannesburg on 7 April.

In Gauteng, housing continues to be a concern, given the new demand created by ongoing in-migration.

Human Settlements MEC Jacob Mamabolo said with the launch of Mega Housing Projects, they are aiming to turn around the human settlements space in the Gauteng city region.

“We are now going big and clustering human settlements projects so that the yield per mega project can be big enough to make a huge dent in getting more people into homes.

“Gone are the days of disjointed housing projects spread across all empty spaces in municipalities,” said Mamabolo.

He said they will work with municipalities and private sector partners to change the spatial patterns and structure of the province’s economy to address unemployment, poverty and inequality.

The Mega Housing Projects will be spread across the five development corridors in Gauteng, which include:

• The Central Development Corridor anchored on the City of Johannesburg as the hub of finance, services, ICT and pharmaceutical industries;
• The Eastern Development Corridor built around the economy of the Ekurhuleni Metro as the hub of manufacturing, logistics and transport industries;
• The Northern Development Corridor anchored on Tshwane as the administrative capital city and the hub of the automotive sector, research, development, innovation and the knowledge-based economy;
• The Western Corridor encompassing the economy of the current West Rand district and the creation of new industries, new economic nodes and new cities;
• The Southern Corridor encompassing the economy of the Sedibeng district and the creation of new industries, new economic nodes and new cities.