Turning houses into homes

HOUSING TURNING HOUSES INTO HOMES

The City of Ekurhuleni is focused on delivering humane and sustainable settlements to its citizens.

The City of Ekurhuleni, through its Human Settlements Department currently has dual roles: the delivery of serviced stands and housing, which entails the planning budgeting design and implementation (construction) of subsidised housing units, and the coordination of the planning, programming and construction of municipal engineering services and socio-economic amenities that constitute integrated sustainable human settlements.

Although 14 781 houses were delivered by the City between 2011 and 2016, demand for housing remains high. Increasing demand for housing resulting from rapid growth in the City’s population has resulted in the adoption of creative and diversified approaches to housing delivery. Ekurhuleni is working with private and public housing delivery partners to accelerate delivery and encourage inclusionary housing within privatesector-driven developments. The City and its partners have packaged the releasing of private sector development opportunities within the Integrated Rural Development Programme (IRDP) and flagship projects on municipal land. This has required strengthened functioning in interdepartmental coordination, as well as the capacitation and support of the City’s social housing institutions to attract additional investment in the delivery of affordable rentals.

SOLUTIONS FOR SPATIAL JUSTICE The demand environment has also necessitated the City to take on stringent measures to enforce spatial governance while working towards creating solutions that will address both demand and spatial justice in the City. Land management has become a central component to planning as measures to control land invasions and the mushrooming of new informal structures are put in place. Concerted efforts have been made to improve service delivery within informal settlements and promote the effective management of municipal-owned rental properties.

The key issues influencing the above-mentioned activities include the current socio-economic realities, national, provincial and local strategies, and – most importantly – the political pronouncements made by the office bearers and political leaders at all spheres of government.

In its effort to extend security of tenure to the poor and marginalised residents, the City distributes title deeds to qualifying residence and property owners. The recruitment of Title Deeds Brigade by the City has ensured that the qualifying title beneficiaries are traced and reached thereby reducing backlog with reference to title deeds distribution.

In order to address the housing backlog and provide housing opportunities for residents, the City has provided more than 2 000 serviced sites for various human settlements development initiatives. It is envisaged that the site and service model will go a long way in eliminating the City’s housing backlog. These serviced sites have permanently installed infrastructures such as water, electricity, sanitation and roads and they are ready for top structures for integrated human settlements and transport-oriented development purposes.

With reference to the city-wide megaprojects portfolio, which consists of multiple mega housing projects, the City continues to provide bulk and link services for services for water and sewer, roads and stormwater, and electricity. In the end, these housing megaproject developments will ensure unprecedented radical transformation of human settlements and spatial planning in the City.

ADDRESSING INFORMAL SETTLEMENTS The City of Ekurhuleni, like other major cities in the region, is at the epicentre of the migration trend facing South Africa. This trend presents a set of challenges and opportunities for the development of cities in the Gauteng City Region. The intersection of rapid population growth spurred by inmigration, historical backlogs and lacklustre housing delivery has resulted in a phenomenon – low-intensity land invasions and the growth of informal settlements. In responding to these challenges, the City must deliver spatially integrated human settlements that respond to the need to redress spatial injustices, but also attend to the immediate basic needs of the people (while improving liveability) in informal settlements.

The housing challenge of Ekurhuleni manifests perhaps most clearly in terms of the proportion of households living in informal settlements, with over 18% of the households in the City living in the 119 informal settlements spread across the municipal area. Showing some progress, the percentage of households living in formal settlements has declined from 29.1% in 1996 to 21.3% in 2015. Informal settlements also pose other service delivery challenges, in particular those linked to infrastructure such as water supply, sanitation, electricity, roads and stormwater reticulation.

In response to informal settlements service delivery, in line with the City’s Comprehensive Informal Settlements Management Plan, the City is increasing the provision of interim basic services to households in the 119 informal settlements. This ensures that the poor residents in the informal settlements are provided with

INSIGHT FROM THE EXECUTIVE MAYOR

On the topic of housing, in her latest State of the City Address, Executive Mayor Alderman Tania Campbell stated:

Housing The City at present distributes around 2 000 title deeds per annum. Under MMC Peterson, the backlogs in outstanding title deeds at the provincial structures will be vigorously pursued. We will increase the number of title deeds we issue from 2 000 to 3 000 for the next financial year. The City’s social housing stock will continue to be refurbished on an ongoing basis and Breaking New Ground housing units will be delivered subject to further rollover approval and gazetting by the Gauteng Department of Human Settlements. The provision of serviced sites will continue, as will the provision of essential services to 119 informal settlements spread throughout the city; however, we aspire to achieve more. Eight hundred and seventy-seven units will be completed across various social housing complexes in the next financial year.

Mega housing projects There are 11 mega housing projects currently under way across the corridors of the City of Ekurhuleni. The projects have envisaged completion dates over the next three to five years from now – with a total expected yield of just under 100 000 units. Human settlements need to be humane settlements: The Multi-Party Coalition government at the January Mayoral Strategic Session pronounced itself on maintaining fair, non-market-related rates for social housing. Human settlements need to be sustainable settlements: Their collection rates need to improve significantly to ensure a return to financial stability for the Ekurhuleni Housing Company. The review of the operating model on historical, social housing complexes will be a part of this process, as will tenant verification. We want to be sure that social housing is not abused, that those who reside there are the intended beneficiaries according to policy and that there is no tampering with the process. Human settlements also need to be safe settlements and our city must be a safe city for all who reside and do business in it.

life-sustaining basic services such as communal water, temporary sanitation, energy and lighting, access roads and refuse removal.

In addition, order to improve the quality of life for informal settlements dwellers, the City has successful implemented re-blocking programmes in phases in various informal settlements. The re-blocking entails the rearranging of informal structure in a well-ordered fashion to ensure access to basic and emergency services.

RECENT PERFORMANCE In the 2020/21 financial year, the City completed seven refurbishment projects on Council-owned rental complexes. This will improve the quality of rental housing units of home seekers whose household income meets the criteria.

During the same period, the City has also achieved the following as concerns the projects mentioned below. Brakpan Old location Ext 13: Town planning and detailed design for all engineering services were completed and approved. In addition, a contractor was appointed and the construction permit was obtained. Furthermore, the site was established and the project has spent R130 million on detail designs and the construction of water and sewer internal services. Van Dyk Park: Town planning and detailed designs for all engineering services were completed and approved. The project has spent R98.5 million on detailed designs and the construction of water and sewer internal services. Daggafontein: Town planning and detailed designs for engineering services completed and matters have proceeded to construction. The project has spent R202 million to date on detailed design and the construction of water and sewer internal services. John Dube Village: Town planning and detailed designs for engineering services have been completed. To date, the project has spent R105.5 million on detailed design and construction of water and sewer internal services, roads and stormwater. Chief Luthuli Ext 6: The township approval process was completed and services were installed. The contractor is on-site installing 900 outstanding stands and 758 houses. Project spend has been over R162.7 million so far. Esselen: Detail designs for all engineering services were completed and approved. The City has spent R88.2 million on bulk designs and the construction of water and sewer internal services. Palmietfontein Portion 5: Detail designs for all engineering services were completed and approved. The contractor was appointed and the construction permit approval has been obtained. The project has seen a spend of at least R61.5 million on the design of bulk and link services, and it is currently busy with the construction of bulk and link works. Leeuwpoort: Bulk civil works are in progress. The project has spent at least R717 million on bulk, roads infrastructure and bulk electricity construction. Tembisa Ext 25: The construction of bulk and link services is partly completed. The City has spent over R297 million on the bulk and link works.