The national Department of Human Settlements has committed R188 million for the development of housing in the inner city of Joburg.
Minister Lindiwe Sisulu made the announcement last week.
This is in addition to the R136.5m the city has already committed to housing developments in the inner city for the 2017/2018 financial year.
The mayor of the City of Joburg, Herman Mashaba, said the economic revival of the CBD was a priority for this administration, and was key to creating an inclusive and prosperous city for all of its residents.
“We cannot hope to achieve this without appropriate and affordable housing for our residents, especially the poor.”
The city faces a serious housing challenge with a 300000-unit backlog.
Mashaba said he had
constantly been calling for the provincial and national government’s support to ensure that this
problem was “progressively addressed”.
“It is important to understand that housing remains a national and provincial competency in terms of the constitution, and the city is reliant on grants from national and provincial government in order to build houses for our people.”
Mashaba thanked the minister for her commitment “to working together in finding solutions to our housing challenges, especially in our inner city”.
“I am happy that the interests of our residents are being prioritised, even at national level.
“We will now focus on the revision of our housing plan to make the necessary provision for this additional funding,” he added.
During his recent 2017/18 budget speech, Mashaba said that following the local government elections last year, the provincial Housing Department had reduced the housing grant to the city to R145m, which meant that just over 1000 social housing units could be built.
The city is spending R66m on site-and-service developments, which are fully serviced plots of land onto which beneficiaries can be settled to build their own homes.
Land for this has been identified in Univille, Lawley and Ennerdale.
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