At a packed meeting on Thursday morning, Human Settlements MMC Cllr Anthea Leitch was joined by MEC Lebogang Maile of Human Settlements and Infrastructure Development to hand out title deeds in Region C.
The MMC provided background on the project and pointed out that she’d been in Fleurhof about two months earlier to allocate new Breaking New Ground (BNG) units to beneficiaries.
She said: “The last time we were in Fleurhof, I reflected on how this project was among the first to see the denser walk-up units being constructed for BNGs, the term that has replaced RDPs. We started this journey in 2008 as a way to deal with the reality that land is expensive and hard to come by for housing in Johannesburg.
“Because these complexes must effectively be governed as body corporates by their new owners, they require beneficiaries to work together and maintain their properties together.”
The MMC said she was pleased that her department has been catching up with the issuing of title deeds before the City gets to the end of this financial year.
“In the middle of last month, we handed out hundreds of other title deeds in Riverside, Region A.
“I’d like to encourage the team to keep up the good pace of work so that we can continue to clear the backlog and make and exceed all the department’s annual targets.”
MMC Leitch congratulated and blessed the proud new title deed owners.
“This is a very special document. You need to keep it safe and guard it with your life.
“Please do not fall for the tricks of loan sharks who will give you loans in return for these deeds. We don’t want to hear stories of people being evicted from their own homes because someone took advantage of them.
“Be proud of owning your property. Keep it as a legacy for your family and as a first step towards building wealth.
“I pray today that God will bless you and keep you safe in your homes.”
The Fleurhof development was approved by the City’s Development Planning department in 2009, with residential space envisioned along with sites for schools, crèches, religious sites, businesses, industry, community areas and cultural villages and a hostel.
In 2010, the city agreed that walk-ups would allow it to deliver 6,000 units, 2,000 of which would be RDPs and the rest divided between social housing, community residential units and affordable rental units.
“We still expect to ultimately deliver more than 14,000 housing opportunities in various forms from this Fleurhof project, with a further 8,000 residential opportunities becoming available once the mine dumps to the West of Fleurhof Drive have been reclaimed and rehabilitated,” added the MMC.
In his address, MEC Maile referenced the advances government has made in providing housing to those of limited means since 1994, but that the province experiences high levels of inward migration, meaning that clearing the applications backlog was a “moving target”.
He warned residents against the temptation of invading land because they would be removed, despite 2024 being an election year.
He instead listed all the government housing programmes, subsidies and grants that people should instead apply for to have a home.
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