Government's new focus is inner-city housing - Sexwale

The Government's past focus on building settlements outside economic hubs was to the detriment of the poor who lived there, Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale said recently.

At the official launch of Tau Village in Pretoria's busy Struben Street, Sexwale said inner-city housing was a reality.

"This is a method, it is a pointer and it lies at the heart of what we are saying," Sexwale said.

"We want to move from the concept of human settlements to reality," he told a gathering on the roof of the four-storey building.

He said in the past the poor had been relocated to human settlements and townships far from resources such as employment, hospitals, schools and shops.

"What happens with that type of social planning of the past is that we continue to erode the most critical parts of someone's salary," said Sexwale.

The building that housed Tau Village was once a slum and a drug den where human trafficking and prostitution was rife.

It has received a R30 million makeover, facilitated by social housing provider Yeast City Housing.

There are 81 self-contained family units in the village and a home for those at risk such as the elderly and people with disabilities.

In the front of the building there are five shops - a bakery, a restaurant, a hair salon, an internet café and a laundromat.

From the roof, you can look down the central atrium to newly painted blue walls with a red border and the curtains of tenants who moved in from May 1.

On the roof, jungle gym equipment has been installed for children to play on.

From Creamer Media's Engineering News at www.engineeringnews.co.za.

Posted at 09:32AM Aug 16, 2010 by Editor in Residential  |