Note to Editors: Attached please find a soundbite in English by DA MPL, Mervyn Cirota here.
For eight years, desperate families in Vosloorus Extension 9 have been waiting for the Alternative Building Technology (ABT) housing project to deliver the homes the government promised. The residents have witnessed the unfinished project, which has already cost an estimated R56 million since 2018, deteriorate and being vandalised. This happens while they remain trapped in informal settlements without basic services such as water, electricity, sanitation, and refuse collection.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) conducted an oversight inspection of the Vosloorus Extension 9 housing project, intended to deliver 132 homes to deserving beneficiaries. We found housing units without doors, windowpanes, and roofing. Some of the fibre-cement wall panels and the light steel frame used in the construction of some units have been vandalised and stripped.
See photos here, here, here and here.
A walkabout through the site felt more like moving through an abandoned forest than a housing project, as overgrown grass and dense vegetation swallowed the structures that Vosloorus residents once hoped to call home. Years of government failure, neglect, and mismanagement have turned what should have been a place of dignity into a symbol of broken promises.
The DA is not surprised by the decay and repeated failure to complete yet another housing project, as this reflects a broader pattern of dysfunction within Gauteng’s provincial and municipal governments. However, it is deeply concerning that this project has remained incomplete for eight years, with no bulk infrastructure installed and little prospect of completion.
Instead of intervening in abandoned housing projects like this one, MEC Tasneem Motara and Premier Panyaza Lesufi have often distanced themselves and shifted the blame onto municipalities for the collapse of these developments. In the process, they have neglected critical housing projects and communities that deserve urgent attention and intervention.
The DA will table questions to the Gauteng Department of Human Settlements MEC Tasneem Motara, to establish how much has been spent on the project, what further funding is required, and the reasons for the delays in its completion. The same questions will also be tabled in the City of Ekurhuleni by the DA’s Councillor Alderman Mabekenyane Thamahane.
The DA is the only party that can fix Gauteng’s broken housing delivery system. A DA government in Gauteng will appoint only properly vetted and skilled contractors, ensure projects are completed on time and within budget, and end the long wait for quality housing.