Pretoria - The TAU building in Pretoria was once notorious for housing underage prostitutes -but the building has now become a shining example for the rest of South Africa after a R30 million make over.
In 1998, police raided the building and found girls as young as 11 involved in prostitution. The building was shut down and later bought by social housing provider Yeast.
The building is now a combined village that boasts 81 self contained family units, a home for Lerato House which caters for girls who are at risk, eight units for the elderly, two for people with disabilities, a crSche, bakery, hair salon, internet caf, and laundromat.
A third of the units at the village will be rented out to people earning less than R3 500 a month while the remaining units will be rented to those who earn between R3 501 and R7 500 a month.
Speaking at the launch of the TAU Village on Friday, Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale said while government had spent a lot of money on RDP houses in the past, these houses had been "essentially dotting the landscape".
Thousands of people left these houses in favour of homes in informal settlements because they wanted to be closer to amenities, to their work and to their friends, the minister said. "People keep moving closer to the city because the city is vibrant, therefore we have about 2 700 informal settlements or slums."
Sexwale added that TAU Village and the work that Yeast had done to revamp it, along with partners such as the City of Tshwane, the Gauteng Partnership Fund, the Social Housing Fund, the national and provincial Departments of Human Settlements, the National Housing Finance Housing Cooperation and other donors, was an example for the rest of South Africa.
One of the reasons to celebrate TAU Village was because it was situated at the heart of the capital city, said Sexwale, noting that it provided housing close to people's places of work and gave them easy access to transport.
He challenged Yeast to now find bigger buildings to transform, saying government was willing to give its support and resources to such initiatives. He said government was always willing to listen to new ideas that would better the lives of its citizens.
