MEC of Human Settlements Lebohang Maile said they will take an intergovernmental approach to address the immediate challenges at Diepkloof Hostel by rehabilitating one of the dilapidated units and demolishing the other two.
He said this when he returned to the hostel on Thursday, 21 March together with Joburg Mayor Kabelo Gwamanda as promised earlier.
Maile was addressing residents who had taken to the streets on Monday to protest against the lack of services, with housing being a pressing issue.
Residents pointed out that their homes are dilapidated and could soon collapse. They said they would take to the streets if the MEC did not present them with concrete results on Thursday.
They said they would rather die at the hands of the police than be killed by the almost collapsing houses.
Maile said the Diepkloof hostel residents will be relocated to 67 nearby flats that were built years ago, while the rest will be housed in temporary buildings that will be constructed soon.
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"We admit that there are immediate challenges that need to be addressed immediately and these immediate challenges concern about three blocks of the hostel that are not habitable. One of the blocks can be refurbished and one or two cannot be refurbished because the engineers have told us that we have to demolish them.
"One we will be demolished. There’s a block of flats that was built next to the hostel. There were 156 blocks built, of which 88 were illegally occupied and 67 are immediately available to relocate people in. Not everyone will be able to be housed there, so we'll build temporary housing units for those whose houses will be demolished," Maile said.
He added that he has asked government officials to immediately submit terms of reference so that they can hire a company that will construct temporary housing units.
The hostel's chairman, Sibongiseni Khoza, told Daily Sun he wanted all the promises made by officials in black on white.
"Yes, they've made promises and said what they said, but we want it in writing. We'll only believe their assurances when we see action," he said.
