As an orphan, Pretoria-based Lebogang Tlhabane spent a lot of time moving around because she did not have a place to call home.
Being a transgender woman, she felt isolated, with her safety being compromised while seeking shelter in unusual places.
Today, Tlhabane’s prospects have changed for the better, thanks to government’s Townlands Social Housing Project in Marabastad in the City of Tshwane. Tlhabane has now found a safety net, which represents hope for the future.
Tlhabane is among the beneficiaries of the Townlands Social Housing Project unveiled this week by Human Settlements Minister, Mmamoloko Kubayi.
“I am an orphan, and I don’t have a home, so I had to move around a lot. Survival on the streets was a challenge because my safety as a transgender woman was compromised and I am happy Townlands is my new home. I will be able to spend Christmas this year with my baby brother and friends around me,” said an elated Thlabane.
The Townlands Social Housing Project is a 1 200-unit social housing development that offers low-cost rental accommodation to qualifying residents of Tshwane, who fall in the income band of R1 850 to R22 000 per month.
The affordable housing development will enable residents of Tshwane to live near the city centre to have access to economic opportunities, thus redressing the housing backlog in the city.
The Townlands Social Housing development includes a community development centre, with 176 one-bedroom units, 1 012 two-bedroom units and 12 three-bedroom units. The development also includes an outdoor gym, among other amenities.
Speaking at the project launch, Kubayi said social housing is a valuable intervention to deal with informal settlements, backyard dwelling and people staying in unsafe inner-city buildings.
She said government is creating opportunities for people to stay in safe government-subsidised rental housing closer to work, school, transport nodes, and other social amenities, whilst addressing the unjust legacy of apartheid spatial planning.
“Our interactions with approved tenants at Townlands and similar developments across the country are indicative of a trend whereby we find beneficiaries or tenants who would have formerly stayed in an informal settlement and transitioned to a formal area.
“Others lived in the inner-city and were subjected to paying a lot of money in unsafe environments. Others were paying money for accommodation to people who don’t even own these buildings,” Kubayi said.
Kubayi said a biometrics system will be integrated into the property, in addition to the current security measures to also address the issue of sub-tenanting by approved beneficiaries, where people bring people who are not registered onto the property.
“People want to feel safe and the biometrics upgrading will ensure safer communities, in line with our freedom charter prescripts that there shall be houses, security and comfort,” Kubayi said.
The Minister has urged beneficiaries to pay their rental timeously and help maintain the long-term sustainability of the projects to avoid their collapse.
Apart from Townlands, which has now been completed, Kubayi said three other projects are in the pipeline to deliver over 2 000 units in the city and “their success depends partly on beneficiaries also meeting their rental obligations”.
The Social Housing Regulatory Agency (SHRA), an entity of the Department of Human Settlements, partnered with Housing Company Tshwane (HCT) in the development of the social housing project.
Kubayi said there are currently about 6 000 applications received from potential tenants.
The Minister commended the three spheres of government for collaborating with beneficiaries, contractors, and community leaders to be able to deliver the project.
“Our focus will also be on an exit strategy for the tenant, as we don’t want them to remain tenants forever,” she said.
Human Settlements Deputy Minister, Pamela Tshwete, who accompanied the Minister, said she was encouraged by the fact that the project was championed by women contractors.
“In the last financial year, the Department of Human Settlements spent R3.1billion as part of 40% set aside for women-owned companies contracted to build and help government to resolve the housing backlog,” Tshwete said.
Over one million houses built in Gauteng since 1994
Meanwhile, Gauteng Human Settlements and Infrastructure Development MEC, Lebogang Maile, highlighted that the democratic government had done significant work since 1994 in providing shelter for vulnerable people.
He said that the Townlands development is a true testament to that.
“We are sitting with no less than 1.3 million houses built in Gauteng since 1994. Today, we have about two million people in the national housing register and 1.2 million of those are in the economic hub of Gauteng, where the population has doubled, [due to those] in search of economic opportunities,” Maile said.
Tshwane Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) for Human Settlements, Ofentse Madzabatela, said he was looking forward to the roll out of more projects by Human Settlements to deal with apartheid spatial planning, which kept people away from economic opportunities.
To apply for Townlands Social Housing Project, visit Housing Company Tshwane, 310 Pretorius Street Pretoria or call 012 358 4469 for more information. – SAnews.gov.za
morbid sugar
A British man on safari walks into a bar far out in the reaches of a game reserve in Southern Africa, he stays at the bar for a while shooting the shit with the bartender and drinking like a fish, he offer to buy the barkeep a round and since no one else is within 2km of their small oasis of liquor the barkeep obliges. The englishman goes off to the bathroom to have a good old go at the porcelain, he\’s back and ready for a few more whiskeys. He\’s just sat down when suddenly in the distance he hears a scream. He looks over his shoulder and dismisses it as nothing, he turns to the barkeep and orders a drink, takes a sip and hears the scream again. He looks at the barkeep who just shrugs it off. A minute or two later he and the barman hear it again and go outside to take a look. They see a lone figure running towards them screaming, he spots them and lets out a cry, RUN!!!!! HE\”S COMING!!!!!
The barkeep and the Englishman both look at the terrified bedraggled sight before them, and try to calm him down, but he\’s completely inconsolable. They give him water and finally manage to get a word out of him but he struggles free from their grasp and run away screaming.
A few minutes later the same thing happens with a whole group of men running in and screaming, he\’s coming, he\’s coming the barkeep grabs hold of one of the men as he tries to sprint past the bar and tries to get information out of him, again no response other than terrified gibberish.
The barkeep and his customer are starting to get worried, they start to pack up before another group of horrified natives run up to the bar most of them flee but one tries to hide behind the bar, the barkeep pulls out a shotgun and points it at the terrified man\’s face, finally managing to coax some words out of him. \”He\’s coming for us, Vernon Koekemoer is coming for us, we have to hide!!! We have to get out of here.\” He gets up and tries to run but the barkeep grabs him, feeling trapped in a panic he grabs the barkeeps shotgun and blows his own head off. The Englishman and the barkeep look at each other starting to really panic now.
They look out of the window and off in the distance they see a tornado coming towards the bar, at the bottom of the tornado they see the hugest beast of a man they have ever seen, as he gets closer they spot that he is riding a rhinocerous and using a crocodile as a riding whip, with each smack of the crocodile across the back of the rhino the louder is screams and the faster it runs, the tornado following it getting ever larger.
The 2 look at each other and start to fortify their position, they\’ve got a gun and they\’re waaay to drunk to run, so they start piling bar stool and tables and anything they can get their hands on to make sure they\’ll be safe when he arrives. They\’re not gonna make it, they can see the man slowing down his rhino, by now the crocodile is nothing but reptile paste on the bruised rump of the half dead rhino, the rhino drops down dead from exhaustion and crashes to the ground right outside the bar the tornado loses it\’s last breath in a cloud of dust as the huge man crashes his way through the make shift barricade and charges up towards the bar where the 2 men have taken shelter, he grabs a bottle of the hardest liquor on the shelf and down the entire litre in 1 gulp, he peers over the bar sobbing and sees the 2 defenders cowering down behind the crates of beer, they look up at the mans\’ face and he stares at them with a look of complete and utter hopelessness, he stares at them for a half second and half screams, half sobs, \”Oh my god what are you still doing here!!! WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE NOW!!!! Vernon Koekemoer is coming!!!!\”
Crash Override
Archeologists in South Africa have just discoved what they think is the oldest tampon ever found
They are trying to find out what period it came from.