South Africa - Johannesburg - 19 February 2024 - Premier of Gauteng Panyaza Lesufi delivers the State of the Province Address (Sopa) at Nasrec expo center. Picture: Itumeleng English/ Independent Newspapers
Premier Panyaza Lesufi has promised to eradicate Gauteng’s 700 informal settlements, saying the provincial government has bought land to address the issue.
Lesufi was speaking during his 2024 State of the Province Address in Nasrec, Johannesburg.
He said the government has started the process to ensure that the land has water, electricity, and sewage so that young people can move out of informal settlements.
“Informal settlements must come to an end. We can't have so many informal settlements in our province, there are 700 informal settlements,” he said told MPLs during the final SOPA for the current administration.
The premier said plans were underway to upgrade almost 68 informal settlements into habitable housing.
“We are accelerating our plans to decongest and relocate people from informal settlements to more habitable land.
“This includes the placement of people in the completed mega projects or other new housing developments,” he said.
According to Lesufi, they have provided more than 2,000 households from 20 informal settlements, with the security of tenure through relocation into completed mega projects.
In addition, 64 informal settlements were provided with rudimentary services, and 16 informal settlements were provided with bulk services.
Lesufi said formalising and upgrading of informal settlements into “township of the future” remained a key priority for the province to ensure that they were better places to live in.
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