The sod turning ceremony for a mega housing project in Leeuwpoort, Boksburg took place on Monday.

This project will be undertaken by the City of Ekurhuleni. The ceremony brought out the city’s mayor, Mzwandile Masina who highlighted the urgent need for more housing across South Africa.

“Housing across the country remains one of the greatest challenges,” he said.

He added that the city was going to prioritise the expansion of housing settlements through the new mega project which aims to build 19,000 houses.

Masina said the new houses will be well-designed, sustainable, integrated and located in secured neighbourhoods.

According to the city, the new development will benefit informal settlement dwellers from Joe Slovo, Ulana Park, Hlahane, Driefontein, Crossroads (Roodekop Ext 3), Vosloorus, Kalamazoo and Katlehong.

To date, already R2 billion has been invested in the project, which the city said “is set to turn the tide on the challenge of informal settlements” in Ekurhuleni.

Currently, there are 119,000 informal settlements in the city.

Construction on the project will begin in July this year, and is said to create 250 job opportunities for the 2017/2018 financial year. According to the city, this is expected to increase as the project continues.