Following his oversight visit to the Rugby Club Informal Settlement in Florida yesterday, the Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) for Housing in the City of Joburg, Councillor Mlungisi Mabaso, has instructed officials to speed up the upgrade processes.
The upgrade processes involve the electrification processes implemented in line with the Department of Energy’s policy and installation of scaled services (water and sewer).
The MMC was also pleased to learn that the department has developed the 1 149 sites in consultation with the residents of Rugby Club. This is in line with the government’s directive of de-densifying congested settlement as part of the response to the Covid-19 pandemic.
In the new financial year, which kicked off in July 2021, the department is targeting to upgrade 13 informal settlements using the UISP.
MMC Mabaso emphasised that officials should focus on infrastructure components that are upgradable such as water/sanitation, roads, and storm water.
It was prudent for the department to act swiftly to reconfigure the informal settlement to address the precarious living conditions.
“Although this is one of the first 30 projects implemented under the UISP, we will be doing the same process in the other 13 informal settlements that we have targeted in the current financial year across our seven regions,” said MMC Mabaso.
This formalisation will reduce the City’s informal settlement’s backlog and improve the livelihoods of Joburg residents, he said.
The City will continue to strengthen the UISP as one of the sustainable human settlement vehicles to create housing opportunities for those living in the informal settlements and the neighbouring communities.
The country was recently taken to level four of lockdown as the number of infections are increasing daily. This new vehicle of upgrading informal settlements will respond to de-densifying highly populated areas amid Covid-19.
The demand for housing opportunities remains the root cause for interruptions and objections in housing projects.
The Government of Local Unity urges residents to be patient as this is an ongoing process to provide interim relief in the form of basic services and to address the sanitation backlog in informal settlements.