More than 297 000 people will benefit from housing projects in Gauteng in the next financial year, provincial minister of housing Nomvula Mokonyane said on Tuesday.
The 58 552 houses to be built will include give-away, financed and rental houses, Mokonyane said in elaborating on Premier Mbhazima Shilowa’s state of the province address.
These mixed housing developments, catering for a variety of income groups, are intended to promote social and racial integration and be located near economic nodes.
The Cosmo City project north of Johannesburg already has 2 579 low-cost houses, while 2 839 bonded houses have been handed to their owners. Three schools have been built and handed over to the education department.
The housing department has identified 145 informal settlements to be upgraded and 209 to be relocated to other areas. It aims to eradicate such settlements by 2014.
Apartheid-era hostels will also be integrated with neighbouring communities and converted into ”affordable rental accommodation”, said Mokonyane.
This will affect Saulsville and Mamelodi in Tshwane, and Diepkloof, Meadowlands, Orlando West and George Goch, in Johannesburg.
Mokonyane said an audit is being undertaken to determine whether those living in government-built houses are the rightful owners. — Sapa