Motara admits Gauteng is facing housing backlog due to great demand

Gauteng Human Settlements MEC Tasneem Motara has promised Bekkersdal residents that the Urban Renewal Project will be completed by July next year.

Motara was speaking during an Imbizo at the Bekkersdal informal settlement in Rand West City Local Municipality on Wednesday. Bekkersdal residents have been waiting for years for proper housing that’s been promised to them. However, the R432 million housing project is still incomplete and has been abandoned.

Residents continue to be exposed to terrible living conditions. Community members in the area say they have lost hope that the government will bring positive change.

Resident, Thato Ndevu says he wants Motara to ensure access to water and job opportunities.

“When we want jobs, we apply and we don’t know where our applications end up. When you arrive in our townships, it’s smelly, sewage everywhere in and out, yet the unemployed youth are available. They hire people who stay far to come work at our township. When we ask why we are not working, they are saying we should wait for them to contact us,”

MEC Motara says she is aware of the backlog.

“For those who have registered for houses on the housing register and when we do have stock, we allocate houses. There is a huge backlog in Gauteng. There is a huge backlog because in Gauteng, there is a huge demand of houses but we are working to provide stock and allocate people houses.”

Motara says they have engaged with the Urban Renewal Project contractors and gave them three weeks to fix the issue.

“Our first session was with various stakeholders who are affected by the current project that the 25km sewage and water upgrade just poor communication from the contractors, the construction program, when are they digging, when are they filling and when are they completing. Secondly is just the overall governance of the project just making sure that municipalities are fully involved and lastly, we want to make sure that the project ends in July next year,”

Executive Mayor William Matsheke acknowledges that there had previously been issues with contractors and that the community was concerned about the project’s progress.

“Our community were complaining about the sewer spillages around the townshipand we immediately communicated with the MEC responsible for Human Settlements. Government tried to resuscitate the project but there were complaints from communities with regard to what the service provider is doing to them when they need to utilize the roads because of the trenches that they would have dug and not closed, we attended to it immediately,”

The aim of the Imbizo was to address the residents’ concerns regarding service delivery challenges in the area.

Video: Bekkersdal Urban Renewal – Residents decry rampant crime and high unemployment