​Qaqambile Mdledle
Gauteng Premier David Makhura joined by City of Joburg MMC for Housing Cllr Mlungisi Mabaso on Friday, visited the Malibongwe Ridge Housing Development in Cosmo City, Johannesburg.
The visit forms part of the Ntirhisano Service Delivery Community Outreach programme, aimed at resolving service delivery challenges in affected communities across Gauteng.
Makhura said government has changed its approach and will no longer be building houses that are away from economic activity as that creates more poverty, inequality and unemployment.
"During the month of March, we want to finalise the list of beneficiaries to enable qualifying beneficiaries to be allocated to their rightful homes," he said.
This project will yield 7 227 houses. A total of 662 houses have been completed and 392 are under construction, to be completed by end of March 2022.
The development is an extension of the Cosmo City housing project located in the north-west of Johannesburg.
"The provincial government and the City of Joburg are doing that big housing development to cover the informal settlements as well as the people who have been waiting for houses," Makhura said.
He appealed to all spheres of government to work well with the community to solve all problems to ensure that this project reaches finality, and all qualifying beneficiaries are allocated houses.
"The Gauteng Provincial Government is committed to being an activist administration that takes politicians to the coalface of service delivery and instil a culture of accountability.
"It also continues to encourage communities to be co-partners with government in untangling bureaucracy and accelerating the delivery of services," said Premier.
Residents were also happy to see Makhura and encouraged him to visit the area more often to hear and address their challenges.
A resident, Robert Ntsoeki said there was a lot of vacant land, but people were not being given access to the land. 
"I urge government to give land to the people to build houses of their choice and to help reduce the backlog," said Ntsoeki.
Makhura assured the community that the meetings were going to continue indefinitely and more frequently as they present the new way of government communication with the people.