The Rand West City Local Municipality (RWCLM) handed over the title deeds for newly constructed houses to two elderly residents of Mohlakeng on Wednesday, 26 June.
This was the launch of the municipality’s housing project, which aims to demolish the old joined government houses where families shared ablution facilities and yards, depriving them of their privacy, and replace them with separate dwellings.
Councillor Dumile Sithole, newly appointed Executive Mayor for RWCLM, officially opened the new houses and said, “The beneficiaries of this handover, Julia Mngadi (75) and Sibongile Mavundla (67), lived with their families in a shared house only 45 square metres in size from 1977 to date. What we have now done is build each family a 42-square metre home instead”.
Sithole added that the four-room houses will consist of two bedrooms, a living room, a kitchen and a bathroom.
“At the moment, we are only handing over two houses to symbolically launch the project, but eventually, we are going to hand over a total of 71 houses within Wards 21 and 22 in Mohlakeng.
“By doing this, we are restoring the dignity of the families so that they can have privacy, their own yard, and their own ablution facilities. Most of all, this is to ensure that they get title deeds for their own properties,” Sithole added.
Mteto Raziya, director of Manong Construction Projects, said the old house had to be demolished in order to be properly reconstructed using modern design methods for low-cost housing units.
“We had to install new foundations that involved a lot of earthwork preparations and had to use methods gazetted by the government.”
Raziya also added that the old house had no ablution block and no electricity.
Sibongile Mavundla, who said she had lived in the old government house since the 70s, gave thanks for the project, saying, “I did not think I would see this day – this is indeed a great gift. For the very time ever, my family will have the privacy they deserve. Thank you very much.”
