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MEC for Human Settlements Paul Mashatile met with community leaders at the Region G offices in Eldorado Park, Johannesburg, on Friday, to work towards solving service delivery issues.
The meetings come after a week of protests over housing, lack of employment and service delivery.
“We met the leadership of Ennerdale and Finetown to look at issues raised here. We had a very good meeting, and obviously people were decrying the fact that it has taken long.
“You’ll recall that I was here last year when we set up the steering committee and there were some delays from approvals that were needed from some of the agencies. Those approvals have now been done,” Mashatile said.
The MEC also said that the issues raised by the communities should not be addressed separately, but as one issue no matter the ethnicity of residents.
“We want to avoid a situation where we see a problem as a problem for coloured people, and a problem for black people.
“We want to deal with this issue as one problem where our people are going to live together in an integrated way,” Mashatile said.
Mashatile’s spokesperson, Keith Khoza, also shed light on the housing backlog that the department is currently facing, and the continued work towards speeding things up.
“We can have a way, [the] waiting list is of 3000 people but only find that 1200 qualify.
“So we’ll be sending a team to conduct the assessment, and based on a set criteria, that all the people that will come forward we’ll make an assessment if they do qualify for RDP houses.”
Mashatile’s visit comes ahead of Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu’s visit on Sunday.
