housing

The head of a women's housing cooperative, the founder of the world's first Aids hospice, a car thief turned businessman ... to mark Heritage Month, the International Marketing Council celebrates six ordinary South Africans who "have become true heroes through their extraordinary actions".

The South African Police Service is to work more closely with communities and government departments to address the social causes of violent crimes in the country - which in the great majority of cases involve perpetrators who are known to their victims.

First National Bank has launched a R800-million affordable housing development that will see more than 3 000 houses being built in a new suburb in Soweto.

South Africa's affordable housing market is looking to alternative building materials in a competition designed to foster innovation in the industry.

"This is what the people of South Africa have asked for: a decent house," says Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu of Cosmo City north of Johannesburg. A mixed development of 12 500 dwellings, Cosmo City will have free and subsidised dwellings, rental apartments and bonded houses, as well as schools, churches, shops, parks, sports facilities and businesses.

Work has begun on one of SA's most ambitious housing projects to date. The multi-million rand N2 Gateway Project will benefit over 100 000 people who squat along the highway leading from Cape Town International Airport - and pilot a new model for tackling urban development in the country.

The R98-million Brickfields Housing Project in Newtown, Johannesburg - the largest public-private partnership in residential housing ever in South Africa - has been officially opened by President Thabo Mbeki.

SA house prices are going through the roof - so much so that a major bank has revised its definition of a middle-class home. Experts are divided over whether the boom is a bubble about to burst, or holds the potential for sustainable growth.

Alexandra township in Johannesburg has been under threat of demolition many times in its 100-year-old history - particularly in the height of the apartheid period, when other "black spots" in the middle of white suburbs met their deaths beneath state bulldozers. Of these, Alex alone survived. Thanks to a friendship.

The Human Rights Commission will engage various government departments and farming communities to ensure that good relations prevail between South African farm owners and their workers.