Pretoria – More than one million homes have been built in Gauteng since the advent of democracy in 1994, says Local Government and Housing MEC Ntombi Mekgwe.
Gauteng is the smallest province geographically, but attracts the largest demand of houses - more than any other province in the country. The recent census has proved that the population in Gauteng is growing rapidly.
With this growth comes demand for houses, as people across the country come to Gauteng to seek economic opportunities, said the MEC in the Gauteng Legislature recently.
“Whilst we have exceeded the one million mark, we are still faced with a huge demand of housing in Gauteng. Working together with the private sector and finance institutions, we are trying to provide as many human settlement opportunities as we can.
“Our mixed housing model, which includes different housing typologies for different income groups, is yielding fruits. Examples include Cosmo City, Fleurhof and Olievenhoutbosch, amongst others,” Mekgwe said.
Meanwhile, the MEC said that all the government employees in Gauteng, who had benefitted unlawfully from the allocation of RDP houses, were repaying back to government all the costs of building those houses.
Over 1 500 public servants above the qualifying criteria in Gauteng received RDP houses. Upon discovery by the government, the beneficiaries entered into arrangements with the department to repay.
“The department entered into an Acknowledgement of Debt (AOD) agreement with the affected officials to repay the money to recover the costs of building those houses," Mekgwe said.
She explained that with the acknowledgment of wrongfulness on their side, and willingness to repay the costs of those RDP houses, no official was suspended or fired.
“In our effort to fight unlawfulness, we also ensure that we give our people a chance to give their side of the story. In our case, our officials became honest and admitted to wrongdoing on their side. As a result, we then decided on taking this line of action and ensured that state money was recovered," said Mekgwe. – SAnews.gov.za
