MZABALAZO WILL BE THING OF THE PAST IN IVORY PARK SAYS MAYOR – KAE NEWS

City of Joburg (CoJ) Executive Mayor Geoff Makhubo and MMC for Housing in the City, Cllr Mlungisi Mabaso today, 14 July 2020 commenced with plans to move thousands of residents of Rabie Ridge in Midrand, who will be beneficiaries of Temporary Relocation Units (TRU’s) following the desperate cry for the City to address the issue of overpopulated informal settlements.

An estimated 6000 qualifying residents are expected to be moved from informal settlements to TRU’s across the City made with prefabricated material as an alternative to stop the spread of Covid-19. This is being done in the hope that through improved and better living conditions, the rate and pace in which Covid-19 is spreading within the province, will be curbed.

As of yesterday, 13 July 2020 the total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in Gauteng, the current epicentre of the coronavirus in South Africa, stood at 98 431 with 644 deaths reported and 33 514 recoveries.

In March this year, President Cyril Ramaphosa said it was clear that South Africa has “a worrying number of local transmissions.” It is for this reason, that the MMC Mabaso is continuing with the programme of de-densifying and re-blocking highly populated areas in order to accelerate housing allocations within the next few months.

The City has a number of high-density areas with a significant population located in informal settlements, which warrants the implementation of drastic yet responsible interventions to prevent a potential rapid spread that could affect millions in a short space of time and with devastating effects to the City and the Country.

In March this year, the Minister of Human Settlements and Water and Sanitation Lindiwe Sisulu met with the Mayoral Office, the MMC and Housing Department Agency (HDA) and raised concerns that people living in the informal settlements are at high risk of contracting and spreading the virus among one another.

It is for this reason that the Executive Mayor started development of house plans to densify high populated areas. The City has a number of high-density areas with a significant population located in informal settlements, which warrants the implementation of Temporary Residential Units (TRU) program that have launched in the City this month. Amongst other areas identified for TRUs include Alexandra, Diepsloot and Zandspruit.

Makhubo said the identified families can stay up to three years at the TRAs which will be built. He added that in four months time keys will be handed over to beneficiaries.

“This is the beginning of the development of the vacant land in Rabie Ridge. We are going to dedensify Ivory Park and are going to do away with what we call here in Ivory Park “Mzabalazo (Informal Settlement). We need to do away with informal settlements in the city and ensure that our residents live in conditions that are habitable.” said Makhubo at today’s Sod Turning Ceremony in Rabie Ridge.

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