Kliptown residents call for housing at Bua Le Sechaba

24 November 2015

 

ACity of Johannesburg delegation on Monday November 23 visited Kliptown, the site of the adoption of the Freedom Charter by the Congress of the People 60 years ago, to assess progress of the City’s service delivery projects.

 

The visit – led by Public Safety Portfolio Committee Chairperson Councillor Oupa Tolo – was a continuation of the Bua Le Sechaba (Talk to the Nation) tour of the City’s Region G by several Members of the Mayoral Committee (MMCs) on Monday last week (November 16) to bring themselves up to speed with the residents’ service delivery needs.

 

However, the MMCs were not part of this week’s extended Bua Le Sechaba tour as they were all attending a mayoral lekgotla. Bua Le Sechaba is a City initiative aimed at overseeing progress of the City’s multibillion rand infrastructure projects and to engage with local communities on a variety of issues.

 

“The initiative is meant to give us an overview of where we are in terms of our projects and to hear it from the community what needs to be done to speed up service delivery,” Councillor Tolo said.

 

Its emphasis is on informal settlements, where it seeks to ensure there is adequate and sustainable housing, among other needs. The Freedom Charter, regarded as the foundation stone of South Africa’s internationally acclaimed Constitution, promises proper housing, sanitation and clean water for all. But not everybody in Kliptown is satisfied with the delivery of these services.

 

Old man Selby Makhoba complained that his time in this world was rapidly diminishing and that he might die before being allocated a house.

 

“Please hurry up with the provision of these houses. We’ve had enough of these shacks,” he told the City's delegation.

Some residents concurred with Makhoba that the City had been “very slow” in providing adequate housing in the area. Crime and grime are the order of the day. Unemployment, alcohol abuse and teenage pregnancy are rampant.

 

Members of the community have to daily negotiate their way through tiny and treacherous passages that snake through the plethora of tin shacks that constitute the locality. A pungent smell from the stagnant water permeates the air, making one’s stay in the area extremely unbearable. Is Kliptown a hopeless case? Not so, said Councillor Tolo, pointing to about 200 brick and mortar houses that have been recently built as part of the Kliptown Urban Renewal Programme seeking to rid the area of informal settlements.

 

Earlier this month Johannesburg Executive Mayor Councillor Parks Tau oversaw the handing over of 60 house keys to former residents of the nearby informal settlements..
More families are expected to move into their new homes early in 2016.

Councillor Tolo said housing developments in the area were “impressive”, although it was a shame that “there are people who continue to live in abject poverty after two decades of the advent of democracy”.