The Department of Human Settlements has vowed to speed up a national project of converting state-owned buildings into affordable housing and student accommodation for people living in the City of Johannesburg.
This as access to adequate accommodation that is suitable, relevant, appropriately located and affordable is still a major challenge faced by many South Africans.
On Monday, Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation Minister Lindiwe Sisulu received a building from Eskom which has been acquired by the Housing Development Agency (HDA) in order to provide decent and affordable accommodation for people living in the City.
The head of Land Assembly at the Housing Development Agency, Lucien Rakgoale says government has taken this initiative to provide much-needed accommodation and alleviate the challenges faced by the Department of Human Settlements.
“The problem is very dire and Gauteng obviously because it’s a metropolitan area we are experiencing migration of people in search [of] economic prospects not just but migration of students coming to the city in search for educational prospects.”
“So the programme is about state-owned companies availing properties to human settlement so that we can then put them to good use, prioritising obviously affordable housing, including student accommodation as well,” says Rakgoale.
Video: Director-General of Human Settlements Department, Mbulelo Tshangana, talks about budget priorities for 2021:
