The initiative enables government communicators and the media to engage on pertinent issues pertaining to the development of the city.
Head of department for human settlements, Bongani Molefe, addressed the gathering on the topic of ‘Leapfrogging Housing Development’.
“This initiative is a way for the city to tackle the issue of housing as an integral part of the rebranding and new city design of Ekurhuleni,” says Molefe.
Molefe says the department’s agenda is focused on the concept of re-blocking and tackling the housing challenge faced by the city.
“Ekurhuleni has approximately 119 informal settlements,” he adds, “in fact, a large portion of Ekurhuleni is informal settlements.”
“Because the city is rapidly urbanising, we have introduced the Human Settlements Pipeline Programme.”
Molefe says the programme serves as an interim measure and complementary programme by the city as it grapples with the issue of providing houses.
“It is a way for us to manage the number of informal settlements we are currently faced with,” he adds.
Molefe says the programme is driven by The Constitution’s mandate to provide basic services to all.
He says the city plans to reconfigure spatial constraints currently experienced by those residing in informal settlements, by introducing the re-blocking process.
“The process seeks to properly align the method of settling around informal settlements by making them suitable for easy access to essential basic and emergency services,” says Molefe, “this includes providing roads for informal settlers.”
“Essentially, we want people to have livable spaces and conduct socio-economic activities.”
Molefe adds the programme will be piloted in selected informal settlements so as to conduct proper assessment and management of the programme in practice.
The programme will be dispersed to other informal settlements, based on the outcomes and improvements of the pilot project.
He assures the programme is not a failure on the government’s part to meet the mandate of providing proper housing to all, but a way of making sure informal settlements are developed in the process.
“Informality is part of the genetic code of the city,” says Molefe, “and we need to embrace that informal settlements will be there for a very long time and while they are there, their residents need to be comfortable and free from hazardous environmental constraints.”
Molefe assures that informal settlement community members will be actively involved in the design and reconfiguration of their living spaces, making it a people-centred approach for government to transform these spaces.
“It is a regulated initiative with communities taking the lead and negotiating their own living spaces,” he adds.
