Each morning Pat Magubane wakes at dawn, hurries through her household tasks and sets off for a dusty building site to start her 10-hour work day.
Magubane is no wage slave rushing to clock in before the boss — in fact she doesn’t get a wage all. She is a volunteer at the Doornkop People’s Housing Process, which equips unemployed people with building skills and the materials to build houses for the most needy in her community.
The People’s Housing Process is an innovative initiative of the Gauteng Department of Housing and the first of its kind in the province. The project provides subsidies and title deeds to residents living in informal dwellings on serviced stands.
Magubane is one of 54 Doornkop residents who were trained by the joint project between the Department of Labour and the Gauteng housing department. She underwent a nine-week training programme in office and computer skills orientation at the Primedia Skills Development centre, and is now a project leader for Block 3 in Doornkop. Other trainees on the project learned a variety of building skills including bricklaying, carpentry, plumbing and electrical installation.
“Rather than staying home and nursing my stress about being unemployed, I contribute something to my community,” she said. As a community liaison officer Magubane works with beneficiaries of the housing project in explaining what contracts mean before they are signed, ensuring that materials are delivered to building sites and that volunteers are at their designated posts.
The project’s beneficiaries are chosen on the basis of need. Pensioners, householders earning less than R1 500 a month and people living with HIV/Aids are given priority. Pensioners may apply for a subsidy of R13 400, while other residents qualify for a subsidy of R10 900.
Eight volunteers are involved in the building of each house, and an amount of R800 is taken from each subsidy and divided among the volunteers as a stipend. An additional amount of R570 a house is used to fund the day-to-day running of the local People’s Housing Process office. The average volunteer earns R20 for each house built.
The project’s standard house design consists of two bedrooms, a bathroom and a lounge cum kitchenette. Residents who want extensions to the standard design are free to choose, as long as they foot the bill. “If you want a bigger house you contribute by giving us additional building material. We don’t take money, just the material,” said Magubane.
Joseph Ramekosi (65) is one of the first beneficiaries of the project. He and his two sons will soon be moving into a new four-roomed house built by people he knows and identifies with.
As a pensioner battling to survive on his monthly grant Ramekosi would have found it near impossible to afford a new house without the assistance of the People’s Housing Process. One of Ramekosi’s sons was helping the builders put the finishing touches to the dwelling, and he told us proudly that his other son would also be lending a hand when he came home from school.
Doornkop sprang up as an informal settlement in 1990, attracting people from the neighbouring townships of Dobsonville and Meadowlands. “When we came here, the government prepared only stands and toilets for us,” said one resident. Now the settlement’s 8 000 households are getting more than just the basics. “In 1990 you could only get water at the corner of your street,” she said. Now electricity has been installed, most residents have a tap in their yard and all the new houses being built have indoor plumbing.
The People’s Housing Process plans to build 1 000 houses in Doornkop over the next four years. To date, 11 of the 250 houses planned for the first phase have been completed. Volunteers who have completed the training programme will receive a national certificate accredited by the Construction, Education and Training Authority Seta (sector education and training authority). The volunteers will be qualified and armed with experience to seek jobs or start small businesses when the Doornkop project is completed. “There are people who are prepared to develop Doornkop even if they are not earning salaries for their work. Our people are committed,” said Magubane.