The City of Johannesburg’s drive to provide residents of informal settlements with decent housing continued on Wednesday 18 November when 30 families took occupancy of their newly built houses at the R10-million Fleurhof Extension 29 housing development in the City’s Region C.

The 30 are part of 400 families who are to be moved from Zamimpilo informal settlement, near Croesus Station in Industria, and accommodated in fully serviced formal housing units in the burgeoning housing development.

The rest of the beneficiaries will be moved to their new homes at a later stage, said Councillor Dan Bovu, Member of the Mayoral Committee for Housing. Covering 440ha, Fleurhof Extension 29 is part of one of the largest integrated housing developments in Gauteng.

Bovu said the City was committed, in line with its Growth and Development Strategy 2030 (GDS 2030), to creating sustainable and decent human settlements and improving the quality for the people of Johannesburg.

He noted there were about 180 informal settlements in Johannesburg inhabited by more than 190 000 people, almost 25% of the city’s 3.2 million residents.

“We’re doing whatever it takes to remove our people from informal settlements, where there are no services, infrastructure and amenities, and housing them in modern and decent settlements so they can have an improved quality of life,” said Bovu.

He, however, added that in its pursuit to address the critical housing shortage, the City was faced with another challenge: land unavailability.

“We’re slowly running out of land to build houses. We’ve started to move towards constructing high-rise buildings to reduce the housing backlog,” he said.

Earlier this month, Johannesburg Executive Mayor Councillor Parks Tau handed over keys to 60 families living in informal settlements in Kliptown, Soweto, to their new brick-and-mortar homes under the Kliptown Urban Renewal Programme.

–Joburg.org.za