By Onwaba Mxakaza
Mabopane residents who have been waiting for years will finally soon receive houses after the City of Tshwane launched a major housing and stormwater project on Monday.
The project in Mabopane Extension 1 will deliver 1 457 brick houses. According to the City, it will prioritise people who have been on the housing waiting list since 1996, as well as elderly residents and people living with disabilities.
Gauteng MEC for Human Settlements, Tasneem Motara said 147 houses will be built during the current financial year. Construction has already started, and two show houses are finished.
She said the project is a joint effort between the City of Tshwane and the Gauteng provincial government. While the City handles local planning, the Gauteng Department of Human Settlements is paying for the houses and basic services like water pipes, sewers, and tarred roads.
Motara said the government is funding the homes and essential underground networks at the same time.
“Bulk infrastructure, water, sewer and road. We as the Provincial Department of Human Settlements are providing the funding for the houses. The project is 1 457 houses. For this financial year, we have allocated 147,” she said.
Motara explained that the new homes are reserved for registered applicants on the official database rather than people living in informal settlements, emphasising that this ensures that residents who applied nearly thirty years ago are not bypassed.
Besides providing shelter, the development aims to fix serious stormwater and sewage problems that have troubled Mabopane and nearby Odi for years. Heavy rain often floods streets and blocks sewer pipes, creating health risks for families.
Odi resident Aaron Matlaome said he hopes the new drains will bring an end to these long delays in repairs.
“I hope this project helps us address the stormwater challenges because we have been facing sewage problems that take the City a while to fix, and sometimes they don’t even come to fix them on time,” Matlaome said.
Ward 22 Councillor Catherine Mabaswa thanked provincial leaders and praised the community for protecting the building site from criminal disruptions.
“We appreciate the MEC and we guarantee her, on behalf of the community, that we will protect this project. I also want to thank the community for not hijacking the project and for protecting it,” Mabaswa said.
