Housing waiting list verification campaign moves to Region B

03 June 2015

 

The second phase of the City of Johannesburg’s housing waiting list verification campaign – through which the City seeks to verify housing applicants’ information and create a project-linked database – kicks off in Region B on July 1.

 

Member of the Mayoral Committee for Housing Clr Dan Bovu launched phase 2 of the campaign at the Danie van Zyl Recreation Centre in Montclare yesterday (Tuesday June 2).

 

From July 1 throngs of field workers, identifiable by their City of Joburg-branded t-shirts, will move from door to door and ward to ward to undertake the mammoth verification exercise.

 

At the launch yesterday, MMC Bovu urged Region B residents to avail themselves and cooperate with the field workers. 

 

The campaign was successfully piloted in Region D, which comprises large parts of Soweto, in 2013. Phase 1 – which was successfully carried out in regions A, E and F – was completed at the end of May this year. Phase 2 will also cover regions C and G and will run until the end of October.

 

MMC Bovu pleaded with the applicants to present themselves to the officials and comply with all requirements.

 

“I know some people knowingly or unknowingly will not comply because they will say they are already on the waiting list. If that is the case, show them that you have already applied and you will be noted down and your information will also be captured,” he said.

 

Clr Bovu told the cheering crowd that the City had already built 3 000 mixed housing units in Pennyville, near New Canada, outside Soweto. 

 

He said the majority of residents on the housing waiting list prioritising the elderly would be settled in Fleurhof, on the West Rand, and in South Hills, south of the city.

 

He said the City also intended to expand Pennyville by building more blocks of flats.

 

“We cannot be a world-class African city if we are not going to facilitate ownership of houses to the people who have been in these areas for years. “Days of allocating houses in terms of colour or race are over,” he said