Sanco: Social housing in Waterfall Estate will lead to cohesion of communities

Calling it a “ground-breaking initiative”‚ the South African National Civic Organisation welcomed Johannesburg mayor Parks Tau’s announcement that affordable housing will “be incorporated in one of Johannesburg’s expensive estates‚ Waterfall Estate in Midrand”.

Sanco’s Jabu Mahlangu said on Thursday that it “will help to reverse the apartheid legacy of segregation based on racism as well as class divisions and bring the formerly marginalised closer to economic activities”.

“The costs of continuing to isolate the poor are far greater than the costs of bringing them closer to places of economic activities through integrated and sustainable human settlements‚” he said.

Mahlangu said the plan will also “lead to social cohesion of communities” as “spatial restructuring and better land-use planning for inclusionary housing programmes will also break market barriers and have a positive integrative impact”.

Tau said that the integrated human settlement is part of the city’s plan to continue incorporating people to live within the areas where they work.

‘Waterfall Estate should not be an enclave of the rich’: Tau

Tau‚ during the his State of the City Address in Turffontein on Wednesday‚ said: “We engaged with the developers of the new town in Waterfall Estate and Modderfontein to ensure there will be affordable housing included in these new mega developments.

“We can say to the people of Johannesburg that we have successfully negotiated with the developer that this should not be an enclave of the rich.

“We said there must be social housing in Waterfall Estate. The same deal applies to Modderfontein development where we have entered into a similar agreement.”

The exclusive multibillion-rand Waterfall Estate is where the Mall of Africa recently opened.