IDP meeting told of inner city Housing Master Plan

25 April 2016

 

The City of Johannesburg has developed a Housing Master Plan for the inner city to address accommodation needs of the area’s residents.

 

This was revealed by Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) for Development Planning and Urban Management Councillor Roslyn Greeff at an Integrated Development Plan (IDP) consultative meeting at the Braamfontein Recreation Centre late last week.

MMC Greeff said the Master Plan sought to address “accommodation hassles” faced by residents of the inner city, including workers and students.

“We’re, for example, looking into converting derelict buildings into student accommodation. Students are exploited in places like Westdene and Brixton. Students can’t be paying R3 000 a month for a single room. We want to put a stop to it,” said MMC Greeff.

She, however, called on residents to be patient as “things sometimes take time”. Ward 58 resident Hussain Adam said there were no capital investment projects planned for his area.

“Our ward has come up with legacy projects in line with the Corridors of Freedom. We want to establish a city improvement district around Mayfair and start with high-density student accommodation. What we need is a meeting with the City’s Planning Department to present our plan,” said Adam.

Tshepo Modikadika said some of the public amenities in Johannesburg should be renamed.

“We can’t in this day and age have a park in Braamfontein named after Queen Elizabeth. There needs to be a name change.”

Most of the concerns raised by residents revolved around the distribution of Jozi@Work packages and the lack of RDP housing in the inner city.

“The City jumps when people in Soweto protest. Residents in Soweto have RDP houses. Why can’t we also have the same in the inner city? Why is the City treating us differently?” asked another resident. The MMC acknowledged the residents’ concerns around Jozi@Work.

“There needs to be an improvement on how we manage the programme. I’ll forward your concerns to the Executive Mayor, [Cllr Parks Tau], who’s championing the programme.”

She promised Ntokozo Ndlovu that free Wi-Fi would be rolled out to other areas in the inner city because the City had budgeted for it. This was after Ndlovu had said his children walked from Hillbrow to Braamfontein to access free Wi-Fi. On complaints about foreign-owned shops, MMC Greeff said the City was anti-xenophobic and there were no laws prohibiting foreign traders from owning shops.