New life for old age home

The Anne Burger Old Age Home has a new coat of paint, among other refurbishments. The City is improving its homes under the 90-day Accelerated Service Delivery plan.
FRESHLY painted yellow and grey walls stood as buffers against the wind as the member of the mayoral committee for housing, Dan Bovu, inspected the newly refurbished units of the Anne Burger Old Age Home in Crown Woods, south of the city.

MMC Dan BovuMMC Dan BovuBovu’s visit to the home on 24 August was part of the mayor’s 90-day programme to accelerate service delivery, under which the housing department committed itself to the refurbishment of four old age homes around Johannesburg. Other commitments were the eradication of three informal settlements and cleaning areas surrounding Sowetan hostels.

Anne Burger is the first home to have been completed. The renovations included fixing the entrance gates, re-plastering the walls and repainting the 150 units that comprise the old age home.

“We hope that through this project, we have demonstrated to the residents of Anne Burger that the department of housing cares about their welfare and that indeed the surroundings of where one resides can have a positive or negative impact in one’s life. We trust we have contributed positively to the residents here,” Bovu said.

The three other old age homes that have been targeted for improvement under the programme are the Xavier, Carica and Nederburg homes; work has begun and is expected to be complete by the end of September. Refurbishment of the four homes is projected to have cost R1,1-million.

A newly painted cottage at Anne Burger Old Age HomeA newly painted cottage at Anne Burger Old Age Home“We want to continuously take care of old people.” As part of this, Bovu highlighted the importance of maintenance. If you left it too late and cut corners on maintaining your buildings, the costs of upkeep and repairs would only rise, he explained.

“In our rent collection drive, we have found that most of the residents of our old age homes pay their rent consistently.

“We are therefore very encouraged and wish to appreciate those people that take this responsibility seriously, because as a City we cannot provide services if people do not pay for them. It makes it even more difficult to maintain property where residents do not pay rent.”

Safety issues at the old age homes were also prominent. The housing department regularly checked with emergency management services and other City departments to ensure that the systems it had in place to deal with crises such as fires were working properly. “We don’t want any surprises,” he said.

Providing quality accommodation for the city’s residents, particularly the elderly, remained top of the agenda. Bovu concluded: “We want to constantly avail affordable rental stock.”