Residents of the Princess Informal Settlement in Roodepoort continue to live in undignified, unsanitary, unsafe and unhealthy conditions while a promised housing development remains largely incomplete.
In 2015, the Department of Human Settlements in Gauteng and the City of Johannesburg launched a project to build housing units close to the settlement and save them from the harsh conditions they endure daily.
More than a decade after the project was launched, only one of the six planned phases has been completed. This failure has left residents trapped in uncertainty, with little clarity on timelines, accountability, or credible plans to deliver the remaining phases.
Residents report that repeated attempts to engage government officials and politicians, including Premier Panyaza Lesufi, have produced no meaningful progress, with community inputs frequently dismissed and concerns met with indifference and arrogance.
The matter was again raised at a recent meeting involving Princess residents, surrounding community representatives, Democratic Alliance (DA) public representatives and the office of the MEC and MMC for Human Settlements, in Gauteng and Johannesburg.
Residents say officials failed to provide satisfactory answers, instead offering excuses and shifting responsibility, deepening frustration and reinforcing the fact that housing delivery in Gauteng is failing. This is supported by a recent comment by MEC Motara, that housing backlogs in Gauteng will take decades to resolve.
The Democratic Alliance calls for urgent intervention, which includes making the delivery schedule for the remaining phases of the housing project public, and being transparent when reporting delays, budgets and contractor performance. In addition, there must be structured engagement with residents that results in measurable progress.
A DA-led Gauteng provincial government would immediately apply pressure on the City of Johannesburg to complete the planning for the project. Furthermore, we would conduct regular meetings with the community to provide updates on the project’s progress.
Residents of Princess deserve dignity and delivery, not delays. Surely the time has come to vote for a government that is capable of fixing service delivery, particularly the delivery of houses to our residents.