The Gauteng provincial government says it is accelerating provision of housing to millions of citizens and will be rapidly handing over RDP houses and serviced stands over the coming months.
Human Settlements MEC Lebogang Maile on Thursday handed over two hundred such stands and some four hundred and thirty-four RDP houses at Wilbotsdal Extension 7 in the West Rand.
Maile said the stands are meant to benefit strictly people who do not qualify for RDP houses as they’re working and are not financed by lending institutions as they earn too little.
“It’s for the missing middle. All these beneficiaries are working, they’re employed but unfortunately they’re not able to get bonds so we giving them these stands which is worth nothing less than one hundred and fifty thousand,its two hundred fifty square meter stands,there’s water, there’s electricity, there’s roads,there’s sewer, they can build for themselves,” said the MEC.
43 year old Kelebogile Gaorongwe from the Northwest. The single mother of two has been spending R 1500 each month on rent ever since moving to Gauteng years ago where she works as a merchandiser.
“I’m happy because I have been renting for so long and now, I’m going to have my own yard. I’m going to start small, two rooms or so and keep extending until I have the kind of house I want,” she said of her dream home.
Getrut Maphari, aged 29 relocated from Limpopo to work as a security officer in Gauteng. The single mother of one said she has been renting an RDP house in which she lives with her unemployed mother and a son of school going age.
“My mother will get comfort and my son will grow up in a house he can call home and be proud of, I am grateful to the MEC and the government, this is really good,” said Mphari who along with Gaorongwe, were among a selected five beneficiaries to symbolically receive certificates of ownership from Maile.
Maile said there’s many such people who the provincial government is planning to provide with land in the coming months.
“There are thousands and thousands of such people and that’s why we bought more of such stands,more than ten thousand and we will be giving people as we go along,” he said.