18-10-2012: Informal settlements come under the microscope in Joburg
Last week Wednesday the 10 October, the Executive Mayor of Johannesburg, Councillor Parks Tau and Member of the Mayoral Committee for Housing Councilor Dan
Bovu together with a small delegation from Housing, visited the City of Tshwane on a knowledge exchange session.
The delegation was there to get first hand information of how Tshwane is relocating informal settlement households, funding acquisition and community
engagement. Both cities share similar challenges regarding suitable land for relocation in proximity to developed areas, shortage of burial land, flooding,
migration and inner city regeneration.
An interesting feature of relocation in Tshwane is the conversion of the vacant land into a green space within seven days after households have been moved
to avoid the land being reoccupied. Where possible, relocations are not more than 10 kilometres from other development.
Johannesburg itself has identified informal settlements some of which are prone to flooding, have high levels of crime and have existing tensions between
locals and migrants. During intensive engagements with the various settlements arranged by MMC Bovu, certain issues were cited as being most critical and
prevalent across the settlements.
According to MMC Bovu these are; inadequate service delivery, lack of information dissemination and distribution regarding both current and proposed
projects in the area, communities of the settlements have very limited or no knowledge or understanding of the applicable planning processes and systems
influencing the delivery process and the impacts on implementation and a high demand for housing delivery not just access to services but complete top
structure delivery.
“Some of these settlements continue to grow even after we have numbered them and this increases the pressure on service delivery”, says MMC Bovu.
These settlements are across the City and include Sol Plaatjie, Hospital Hill, Zandspruit, Fleurhof, Marlboro factories, Tshepisong, Ivory Park and Kya
Sands amongst others.
The intention of the engagements and assessments was to understand the situation at hand and determine the best possible course of action for each
settlement in relation to the integrated development planning processes.
Ends
Issued by
Virgil James
Communication Specialist
City of Joburg
082 467 9415
