Local resident Betsy Chauke will finally have a place to call home.
The 68-year-old applied for a subsidised council house almost 20 years ago and she is still hopeful she will soon have a home.
Chauke, who lives in a backyard room in Ruimsig, was one of hundreds of Johannesburg residents who turned up for the launch of the 1996/97 Housing Waiting List Verification Campaign in Region C on 9 June. She said she was excited about the campaign and was looking forward to having her status on the housing waiting list verified.
“I applied in 1996 and am so excited,” said Chauke.
“I live in a back room and have dreamed about having my own home for so long. It’s now seemingly happening and it’s very exciting. I’m going to wait for the fieldworkers to make sure they tick my name,” she said.
From 1 July, City of Johannesburg’s fieldworkers, dressed in distinctly identifiable yellow T-shirts, will visit residents on the 1996/97 waiting list in the region. The exercise, which seeks to update and whittle down the list and address corruption, will take four months to complete.
Member of the Mayoral Committee for Housing Councillor Dan Bovu encouraged all those who had been registered on the housing waiting list to come forward.
“We need this information for our database, which will be used to link applicants to available housing units and future housing developments,” MMC Bovu said.
“I appeal to residents to avail their documents and not to try to buy places in the queue. Please do not buy what we are not selling,” he said.
The exercise is, however, not exclusive to those who applied in 1996 and 1997, although these applicants will be given priority when houses are allocated.
The MMC gave details of a number of housing developments in the pipeline. He said these were some of the areas where applicants on the 1996/97 housing waiting list would be settled.
The City has already started allocating homes to applicants in various housing developments such as Fleurhof and Lufhereng, both on the West Rand.
MMC Bovu also revealed, to thunderous applause, that several homeless residents in Davidsonville would within the next two months be moved to Fleurhof.
Campaign project manager Thulani Nkosi said priority would be given to people with disabilities, the aged, child-headed households and military veterans when houses are allocated.
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