"They're not listening to us": Soweto and Alexandra residents push back against housing plan that ignores their needs

When the Johannesburg Development Agency unveiled its revised Housing and Urban Densification Framework last month, the announcement came via a press release and a single public hearing at the Civic Centre in Braamfontein. For residents of Soweto and Alexandra, the process felt familiar in all the wrong ways.

"They make decisions in town, then they tell us what's happening," says Thabo Mthembu, a community organiser working with the Alexandra Housing Action Group. "No one from the municipality came to our ward meetings. No surveys. Nothing."

The framework, intended to address Johannesburg's acute housing shortage by encouraging mixed-income developments and infill housing across the city, proposes rezoning approximately 12,000 hectares of land currently designated for single-family use. City officials project the plan could unlock space for an additional 200,000 housing units over the next decade—a significant figure in a metropolis where an estimated 1.2 million people live in informal settlements.

Yet residents in townships like Soweto, where land values have risen 340% since 2015, fear the policy will accelerate gentrification rather than expand affordable housing. A housing audit by the Socio-Economic Rights Institute found that 73% of new residential developments in Johannesburg's inner ring over the past five years have targeted buyers earning above R25,000 monthly—well above the township average of R8,000.

"The policy says 'mixed-income,' but what does that mean?" asks Nomsa Dlamini, a teacher and Soweto resident of 19 years. "If they bring development to our areas, the property taxes go up. Rent goes up. We get pushed out anyway."

Community groups including the Soweto Collective and the Informal Settlement Network have called for the framework's postponement, demanding genuine consultation before implementation. They're requesting that the municipality establish a community advisory board with real decision-making power, not merely advisory status.

Municipal spokesperson Kwanele Nkosi acknowledged the feedback but defended the process. "We held multiple stakeholder engagements across all regions," he said, though attendance figures for township venues were not immediately provided.

The council is scheduled to vote on the final framework in August. With three weeks to the decision, community pressure is intensifying. Residents argue they've learned from previous development cycles—and this time, they're determined not to be an afterthought in the city's planning narrative.

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