The Joburg Property Company (JPC) on Tuesday presented about 305 beneficiaries with title deeds to the land they are occupying and four-roomed houses they secured through the reconstruction and development programme.

Speaking at the handover ceremony in Kyalami, Johannesburg mayor Parks Tau emphasised the need to empower residents through the land regularisation programme (LRP). “The programme provides a platform for effective beneficent regulation of government land.”

Tau noted that through the LRP, landowners also have a platform for proper land administration, for example, when they intend to sell.

The first beneficiary to receive a title deed, Steve Nkatlo, said the title deeds were supposed to be handed over to Dobsonville residents in 2005, but were only received seven years later. “It does not matter how long the process took but what matters is that we are now land and property owners. We dedicate the deeds to our fallen comrades, whose children are now beneficiaries.”

Nkatlo received a business title deed for a butchery business he has been operating since 1985, having previously rented the land from the city council.

“Credit should be given to former mayor Amos Masondo, who met with us several times to deal with our grievances of not owning land that we have been occupying for more than two decades. At last I can now renovate my butchery and also choose a beneficiary to carry on my legacy when I pass on,” he said.

JPC MD Helen Botes said the LRP was unique to the metro, as it formed the basis of a sustainable property economy through expediting the transfer of properties to beneficiaries, as well as releasing vacant sites on public tender.

“Over the next three to five years, the programme seeks to transfer and/or release about 3 700 properties in Alexandra, the Greater Soweto area, the Greater Orange Farm area, Ivory Park and surrounds,” said Botes.