The city of Tshwane is working towards construction of new houses and resurrecting its power generation capacity to meet increasing demand.
The city has come up with a US $0.78bn housing development programme that will see construction of 122 000 homes in 12 months. 37000 of these houses will be built by the South African Government, 45000 by the City management, while the private sector investors will construct 40000 houses. In order to cater for the housing construction, the city has planned to sell assets, including property and unused land to raise money.
The city, which has also been facing power shortages, is planning on reducing this problem by reviving Rooiwal and Pretoria west coal fired power stations. These power generation plants will help curb demand as a result of the planned housing developments.
According to the Mayor of Tshwane Kgosientso Ramokgopa, the two power generation plants are only operating at 15 percent. Proper management will be appointed for the two plants by November, to ensure that surplus power is fed into the National electricity grid.
In addition to this, the council, which will be looking into ways of reducing the demand for electricity and increase regional production, has approved construction of a new building worth US $0.11bn for its meetings.
