Pretoria - The government wants to swiftly eradicate the hostel dwellings built for migrant workers in most townships during the apartheid era.
This was said by Machwene Semenya, chairperson of the human settlements parliamentary committee, during her oversight visit to Mamelodi hostels on Friday.
“We don’t want a situation whereby in two years, when we come here we find the same structures. There must be families here. We are doing away with hostels,” Semenya said.
Joined by committee members and the City of Tshwane’s human settlements MMC, Abel Tau, Semenya was also there to assess the implementation of the hostel redevelopment programme.
In 2020, the City announced a budget of R20 million to redevelop the Mamelodi hostels, and a further R20m to redevelop hostels in Saulsville.
However, on Friday the secretary of the hostel committee, Zacharia Mokuwe, told the Pretoria News that residents were still waiting for the municipality to use the budget.
Mokuwe said: “When people come here, they mustn’t say we are going to the hostels.
They must just say we are going to Mamelodi. We want a place where we can live together with our families," he said.
He expressed his disappointment at the fact that for the past 10 years there had not been any changes at the hostels.
“We didn’t see any changes from the councillor whose term in office ended last year,” he said.
Hostel dwellers have previously been accused of illegally occupying houses built by the government.
Mokuwe said: “When they build new structures, it must be clear who they are building for.
Otherwise, if they don’t make it clear, we are going to run into a problem where they are occupied by those who were not meant to be beneficiaries.”
Semenya said the committee was not happy with the pace at which the government was implementing its programme to eradicate hostels.
“The programme must move with speed so that we can do away with hostels and bring (about) an integrated society,” she said.
She was also concerned that the hostels were populated mostly by people who were unemployed.
“Historically, hostels are meant for those who are working.
“How did it happen that we end up with people who are not working, in hostels?
“If we are not careful, these hostels will become a danger zone for development,” she said.
Occupants in the hostels had previously complained about cracks in the walls and many units were without electricity.
Some units had broken windows covered with cardboard and plastic.
Semenya also went to see temporary housing units commissioned by the national government to de-densify the hostels during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Tshwane’s human settlements divisional head, Sello Chipu, said he was happy with the committee's oversight visit, saying it was important to keep the executive on its toes.
Chipu said the City's sustainable human settlements ’plan was addressing all the housing backlogs.
Pretoria News