MEC for Human Settlements and Infrastructure Development Lebogang Maile on Wednesday 13th December handed over 294 houses to qualifying and deserving beneficiaries at the Goudrand project in Durban Deep, Roodepoort, City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality.
The Goudrand integrated development project is one of the Departments Mega City Human Settlements projects which has various amenities that includes business and industrial sites (employment nodes) as well as community facilities such as five education sites, seven crèche sites, a hospital site and municipal sites.
The MEC congratulated the deserving beneficiaries and urged them to look after their new properties as it is a generational asset. He said government is aware of the challenges faced by communities and is doing its best to improve the living conditions of the people in Gauteng.
The MEC continued by saying that we are not saying all is well, we are saying that the little that we are doing in Goudrand shows that there is progress in our efforts to restore the dignity of the people in the Province.
“Recently as Gauteng Government, we handed over 227 serviced sites as part of our Ikageleng Rapid Land Release Programme in Randfontein, these were handed over to young people who are not eligible for mortgage loans and cannot qualify for an RDP house. These are young people who can build for themselves and that is why as government we gave them stands with water, sewer, roads, and electricity connections” said MEC Maile.
The Gauteng government is hard at work to speed up service delivery to the people of the Province. On Tuesday, the Gauteng Department of Human Settlements working together with the City of Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality and the South African Police Services evicted people who illegally invaded serviced stands meant for deserving beneficiaries in Palm Ridge Ekurhuleni. We are working with the courts, developers, and police to execute eviction orders against these illegal acts of land and house invasions.
“The Gauteng province alone has more than 1 200 000 people who are waiting for houses. Lawlessness cannot be tolerated as it disrupts government planning for the people who have been waiting patiently for government services” concluded MEC.
