The Covid shelters that never housed a soul

Hundreds of container homes built as Covid-19 shelters in overcrowded Alexandra township remain unoccupied, while others are still being built — more than a year after the lockdown ended.

When the project to build the so-called temporary Covid-19 shelters (TCS) was launched in July 2020, the pandemic was wreaking havoc in Johannesburg and there was a need to “decongest” high-density neighbourhoods such as Alexandra to enable social distancing and reduce fatalities.

But three years later, the project — which consists of 396 containers piled on top of one another to form four-storey blocks of flats — is still incomplete. The development stands on the site of a local soccer field the community once used.

The City of Johannesburg budgeted at least R500m for the project, and so far almost R140m has been spent, according to the Johannesburg Social Housing Company (Joshco).

They could just give the community these houses, since they have not done anything with them since they were built — 

—  Hlengiwe Sithole, Alexandra resident

Residents of Alexandra's Madala hostel, not far from where the container units are situated, told the Sunday Times they were informed that they would be moved there while the hostel was being renovated, and they didn't know why this hadn't taken place.

One, who asked not to be named, said: “We were told that we would be moved there during the pandemic while the hostel [was] being rebuilt, but this has not happened, and stories keep changing.”

All the hostel residents the Sunday Times spoke to said they could not wait to move into the shelters, and for the hostel to be refurbished, because the conditions there had deteriorated.

Local residents complained that the shelters were standing empty while Alexandra residents battled an acute housing shortage.

“They could just give the community these houses, since they have not done anything with them since they were built,” said Hlengiwe Sithole, 46.

Karabo Ramahuma, regional spokesperson of the South African Municipal Workers' Union (Samwu), said that, according to a progress report from Joshco, 396 of 520 units had been built.

“Three years later, no-one has lived there,” he said. 

The report said the converted containers would consist of mixed single-accommodation and family units. Some of the units had been vandalised, forcing the municipality to hire security guards to look after them, he said.   

Ramahuma said the union had complained to at least three different mayors about the matter, but nothing had been done.

“Because the mayors keep changing, it seems that our complaint is not being heard, but we have escalated it to the former MMC of housing [the IFP's Mzobanzi Ntuli] and the office of the speaker [Cope's Colleen Makhubele],” Ramahuma said.

Meanwhile, Joshco said the development was “a work in progress”. The entity’s COO Themba Mathibe said that to date R139.3m had been spent on the project, and that the flats were empty because they had not been supplied with bulk infrastructure services. These include sewerage, water and electricity infrastructure.

“The units are not in use due to the fact that there were community stoppages and an invasion that took place in March 2023 whereby we had to get an eviction order to reclaim the structures,” he said.

Mathibe said 396 units had been completed, and these would be used beyond Covid-19 as “temporary transitional units for decanting of hostels and informal settlements so that they can be fully redeveloped”.

He said the metro planned to complete the project “before the end of this year, so that the decanting process can resume for the redevelopment of the hostel programme to commence”.