Merafong -The Khutsong Human Settlement Project which was signed by local government MEC's on Thursday is expected to produce more than 18 000 houses for the families living in the area.
Families living on geologically unstable land will be be moved to Greenfield developments and provided with all necessary socio-economic infrastructure.
Gauteng MEC for Housing Nomvula Mokonyane, North West MEC for Developmental Local Government and Housing Howard Yawa and the Executive Mayor of Merafong Municipality, Desmond van Rooyen signed the Khutsong Human Settlement project co-operative agreement.
The agreement aims to establish protocols and procedures to enable the three spheres of government to work cooperatively to ensure the successful implementation of the project.
The process of demarcating the Merafong Municipality, which Khutsong falls under, is at an advanced stage. The area is set to be re-incorporated back into Gauteng as soon as all legal and statutory processes have been finalized.
In November 2008, Minister for Provincial and Local Government, Sicelo Shiceka said the situation in Merafong called for swift government action to deal with the issues the community was not happy about.
He said the process of re-demarcation of these municipalities had to be preceded by a thorough public participation engagement process.
He said consulting community members was to find a lasting solution to the issues which have led to the level of social and economic instability and through this process government wanted to see the matter reach closure within the applicable legal and legislative requirements
