Johannesburg - The Gauteng Provincial Government has identified 120 informal settlements for formalisation while others will be relocated to current housing projects or new portions of land.
The announcement by Housing MEC Kgaogelo Lekgoro on Tuesday comes as the number of informal settlements in the province grew from 405 in 2005 to 489 in 2009.
The population in the province grew at a rate of 3.8 percent between 1996 and 2001, accounting for around 35 percent of the total increase in the national population.
Lekgoro said the plight of people living in hostels remained the focus of his department in the delivery of houses. "We will continue to explore products that can be affordable to people living in hostels and various proposals were in place in this regard."
He said installation of internal services and electricity was underway in Dube, Meadowlands and Diepkloof hostels, all situated in Soweto.
The provincial government recently launched the Lufhereng Housing Project, a new housing development initiative situated in Soweto. It forms part of the western extension of Soweto and is said to be the largest low cost housing development to take place in the area.
The first phase of the project has delivered about 2 433 freehold stands of which 1192 have been earmarked for subsidised housing while close to 1000 units have been turned into RDP houses.
