With hundreds of title deeds successfully delivered to Pimville and Klipspruit residents, housing units handed over to beneficiaries of the Lufhereng housing project in December, various maintenance and safety installations completed, Johannesburg Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) for Housing, Cllr Mlungisi Mabaso can look back proudly on 2020.
In 2021, the 30-year-old aims to continue right where he left off and has revealed plans to launch the Kliptown Extension 7 project.
“One of the major projects we are determined to launch this year is the Kliptown Extension 7 project, which will provide more than 1200 houses,” he said.
The MMC was speaking Soweto Urban, reflecting on 2020 he expressed some disappointment that some projects were delayed due to the Covid 19 pandemic.
“There were difficult patches,” he acknowledged.
[also read] – Decades of waiting rewarded as 176 title deeds are handed over to Pimville and Klipspruit residents
“We had to restructure our budget in response to Covid’s demands. We had to provide temporary settlements to people who were overcrowded in informal settlements, add water tanks and provide clean functional mobile facilities to ensure that sanitation was prioritized. We couldn’t complete certain projects on time because our consultations with communities had to adhere to covid social distancing protocols, so those were just some of the challenges, but I’m proud that we were able to do most of what we set out to do, and I’m aware that there is a lot more work to be done,” he said.
Throughout his tenure, the MMC has faced stubborn opposition in his mission to provide housing in the form of land invaders. Mabaso said in light of this, he and his department opted for a proactive approach.
“We cannot pretend that we don’t know that people need land. But we are very careful with the issue because we know that as much as there are people who are desperately in need of land, there is also a criminal syndicate where people are selling stands, and as a department, we have to follow necessary procedures.”
Having grown up in a hostel himself, Mabaso acknowledged that he is not blind to the people’s frustration and need for land, and that is why his team is planning on providing serviced stands.
“Now for those who desperately need land, we understand that frustration and that’s why as a department, we said let’s have a program to meet people halfway. We have sent a policy to the mayoral committee so that we can provide serviced stands to deserving beneficiaries,” he said.
Mabaso however, did warn what there would be criteria and only qualifying applicants would be provided with serviced stands based on several factors – such as an applicant’s income. He said that more details around the project would be made public in due course, but confirmed that the development of these sites had already begun and that should the policy pass, the provision of stands should have begun by the end of this financial year (end of March).
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