Funding not enough to address Alexandra housing backlog: DA
The Democratic Alliance says the reason behind its slow progress on housing in Alexandra, north of Johannesburg, is because it only relies on government funding for housing projects, that is not enough.
The party’s Johannesburg Mayor Herman Mashaba has been facing a heavy backlash from the Alexandra community over the mushrooming of illegal structures and poor service delivery.
Residents staged a two-day protest over the matter on Wednesday.
DA’s Makashule Gana says, “The city does not receive direct funding to build houses, we rely on the provincial and national government to give us a grant and those grants in the last two financial years have been cut.”
He says: “We haven’t been able to build many houses as we would have liked for the people of Alexandra. There are housing developments that have been put in Alexandra. Is it enough? No, it’s not enough because the resources that we receive are not enough for us to address the shortage.”