CoJ demolishes women’s hostel
The City of Joburg demolished part of Orlando West’s women hostel to make way for new developments.
The Orlando West Women’s Hostel in Soweto is gone, thanks to the City of Joburg and the Gauteng Department of Human Settlements.
The 22 unit hostel was demolished on September 22 to enable the roll-out of the second phase of the R150 million modern housing development catering for whole families.
84 units, 44 of which are already occupied was part of phase one of the project.
The remaining 40 units were temporarily allocated to owners of the demolished units.
The hostel has been undergoing a major makeover under the City of Johannesburg’s multimillion rand Soweto Hostel Redevelopment and Upgrading Programme.
Member of the Mayoral Committee for Housing, Councillor Dan Bovu was overseeing the demolition.
The MMC said the City was on track in its stated aim of doing away with all hostels, the creation of the apartheid regime’s segregated housing policy.
“On this project we have agreed to accommodate people from the hostel and those from outside. We cannot afford to continue dividing our communities, as happened during apartheid rule,” he said.
The project will take 22 months to complete. However, the first 20 units are expected to be ready for occupation by March next year.
