Bua Le Sechaba unveils Alex development projects
15 June 2016
The City of Johannesburg has unveiled a multimillion rand housing development in Alexandra and announced plans to revamp two single-sex hostels into liveable family units and build a new state-of-the art clinic.
Over and above that, the Region E township will, as from July 1 this year, have access to free Wi-Fi, joining a growing list of areas in the city that have been connected to the internet. This will assist job-seekers, students and entrepreneurs.
These new developments emerged during a tour of the township by Johannesburg Executive Mayor Cllr Parks Tau and his executive team under the Bua le Sechaba campaign. Bua le Sechaba (Talk to the Nation) is a high-level City initiative aimed at lending an ear to residents with a view to identifying bottlenecks and fast-tracking service delivery.
Mayor Tau was accompanied on the tour in freezing weather by Members of the Mayoral Committee including Cllrs Dan Bovu (Housing), Nonceba Molwele (Health and Social Development), Roslynn Greeff (Development Planning and Urban Management), Matshidiso Mfikoe (Environment and Infrastructure Services), Chris Vondo (Community Development), Sello Lemao (Public Safety) and Ruby Mathang (Economic Development).
Also present were Council Speaker Cllr Connie Bapela, Chair of Chairs Cllr Solly Mogase, ANC Deputy Chief Whip Justice Ngalonkulu and Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA) Managing Director Thanduxolo Mendrew. Two Alexandra residents – Samson Sekele and Thembani Luthi – became the first homeowners at the R64-million Bohlabelo Village, where 33 units have already been completed by the JDA, a City-owned entity.
This forms part of the City’s ongoing drive to slash the housing backlog in the metropolis.
The project will on completion deliver a total of 232 houses. The homes are earmarked for residents who earn too much to qualify for RDP houses but too little to afford bonded homes.Project Manager Aubrey Museta said the remaining houses would be allocated by the end of July.
Sekele and Luthi thanked the City for the subsidies that would result in them paying bonds of about R3 000 a month.
During the tour, Cllr Bovu said Madala Hostel, which was gutted by fire about three years ago, would be rebuilt. Bovu said work would start in July 2016. MMC Bovu said work would start in July 2016.
Residents would be moved to temporary housing in the meantime. Induna Sipho Mwelase thanked the City for attending to the rebuilding of the hostel, which housed more than 3 000 men.
At the nearby Helen Joseph Women’s Hostel, MMC Molwele led the sod-turning ceremony for a R25-million clinic. The old facility, which was struggling to service the more than 55 000 local residents, has already been demolished to make way for the new one. Also a JDA project, the clinic will triple the number of waiting rooms to 18, making it a National Health Insurance-compliant health centre. The clinic is scheduled to open its doors in January 2017.
MMC Mfikoe pleaded with the community to co-operate with City Power in its programme to regularise electricity supply in the township. She said the installation of prepaid meters was part of the solution to illegal connections and ensure that everyone got power.
Cable theft was also compounding the problem, she said.
“The network cannot cope [hence the outages]. Allow us to come and complete the metering project,” she said.
MMC Mokoena encouraged the youth to take advantage of the programmes the City was running, including scholarships, bursaries, internships and learnerships.
“Every year the City gives out 100 bursaries. This year we trained 30 unemployed graduates and this will double to 60,” she said.