Giving people serviced stands will address land invasion
Source: Timeslive, Penwell Dlamini
Gauteng MEC of human settlements Paul Mashatile says the programme of giving people serviced stands where they can build for themselves will help address the problem of land invasion in the province.
Speaking at a media briefing during a land summit in Johannesburg on Tuesday‚ Mashatile said the allocation of serviced stands is an initiative to be run concurrently with other housing initiatives like RDP and mixed housing developments.
Mashatile called the summit to present his plan on serviced stands and get input from representatives of communities in Gauteng. He said giving people land would ease the pressure of providing a fully built house from government by sharing the responsibilities with people building their houses.
This‚ he added‚ would help curb land invasions. “I believe this approach will help us prevent land invasion because communities will see that we have a plan. That is why we invited community leaders to the summit.
“We are not giving land to everyone. It is people who qualify. It is South African citizens who qualify to access these benefits.
“[We acknowledge] that not everybody will have money to build a proper house. Ideally‚ we want to give these sites to people who can build proper structures. But this is [in response to] their request. They said ‘give us the land‚ we will build’. We are realistic that they may not be speaking for everybody. There maybe those who really want to access these sites and may not be able to build a formal house. We will give them a chance to be able to do that over time. In some of the areas where we have done this‚ [when] we go back we find someone is still in a shack and then we help them‚” Mashatile said.
Currently the City of Ekurhuleni is leading with 37 000 serviced stands designated for beneficiaries. People who will benefit from this initiative will be drawn from the current housing list.
A team has been established within the Gauteng human settlements department to work with all municipalities in the province in identifying suitable land which can be bought by government and given to people to build.
The Gauteng government is also identifying land owned by national‚ provincial and state-owned entities which can be bought and used for the development.
Mashatile said there are also properties that government wants to buy and turn into high-rise flats in order to densify certain areas in the province.
Margaret McBasson‚ a community representative of Lawley and Ennerdale‚ south of Johannesburg‚ said the move by provincial government would help provide an alternative to other housing interventions.
“We are very excited about this initiative. We are excited because there is a shortage of houses in the country. Right now people are invading land and we have nothing to say to them because there are no alternatives on the table. This is so exciting because government is coming up with a plan which will address the [housing] problems. In our local communities we are faced with serious problems like the backlog of housing and land invasion‚” she said.