Johannesburg - Deep mining hostels, symbols of apartheid-era segregation, have been transformed into modern, social housing flats.
And next to the hostels, the Johannesburg Social Housing Company (Joshco) has built extra blocks of flats, bringing the number of units in the City Deep housing complex to 708 - complete with roads, pedestrian walkways and gardens.
Last week, City of Joburg mayor Parks Tau visited the final stage of construction on the occasion of Joshco’s 10th anniversary.
“Joshco is fulfilling its mandate to transform these monuments of South Africa’s historic inequalities into sustainable thriving spaces.
“The City Deep project is a demonstration of the city’s commitment to redress historic spatial inequalities through, among other things, the rehabilitation of mining land in line with our Corridors of Freedom programme,” he said.
Joshco, mandated by the council to tackle human settlement and urbanisation disparities, has invested more than R1.8 billion over the past 10 years in the provision of 7 000 homes and the refurbishment or construction of 8 749 housing units with plans to increase the number to 13 600 units by the end of June 2017.
The City Deep project is expected to be completed by May.
Tau said the council would spend R3.3bn on infrastructure development along the Corridors of Freedom over the next three years.
The rental units are available to people who earn between R3 500 and R7 500 a month.
Joshco chief executive Rory Gallocher said: “One of the factors that threatened social housing was non-payment of rentals by tenants. Our tenants can expect delivery of service, while we expect them to pay rent on time every month and to respect the buildings and the rights of other tenants.
“The collection rate up to the end of the last audited financial year was 88 percent, up from 46 percent in 2006. Joshco is progressively improving this to achieve an average of 97 percent.”
He said education played a big role in Joshco’s operations.
“Often, our tenants are first-time renters, so the rights and obligations of a responsible tenant need to be communicated. This is done through workshops that Joshco’s tenants are obliged to attend before signing a lease agreement,” he said.
Earlier in the day, the mayor, member of the mayoral committee for housing Dan Bovu and other dignitaries visited Fleurhof, where the mayor handed three families the keys to their new homes.
The 10 000-unit estate is a transit-orientated development that has 452 social housing units. The area is close to schools, parks, shops and places of work.
The Star