Cape Town - The first 30 of a promised 169 homes at the long-delayed Qolweni Phase 3 project have been handed over to residents, a year after the project was handed to the province for completion.
The project, with an allocated budget of R33.5 million, was originally approved in October 2019 and construction of the 169 units was to have begun in January 2021, but a collapse in the relationship between the municipality and community prevented this happening.
In June last year, after numerous community protests, the Bitou Municipality handed the project over to the provincial department of Human Settlements, now known as the department of Infrastructure.
ANC councillor Sandiso Gcabayi who as acting Bitou mayor officially handed over the project on Monday said the ANC appreciated what the department had done, but that all the credit must go to the Bitou Municipality which had also provided for the connection of electricity.
“Bitou Municipality came to an agreement to hand over the project to the Western Cape Human settlements, when delays were prominent and we did not want the project to stall any longer.”
Handing over the 30 finished units, Infrastructure MEC Tertuis Simmers said that the remaining homes will be completed and handed over before the end of 2022.
He said he was happy to have fulfilled his commitment to successfully deliver the project to the deserving beneficiaries of the community.
Simmers warned beneficiaries about the illegal sale and rental of the Breaking New Ground (BNG) houses, and urged them not to fall into the trap of seeking to make a quick profit by selling their new homes.
Meanwhile, in response to a question in the legislature Simmers said that 159 new informal settlements had been established since 2019.
Simmers told ANC MPL Pat Marran that since the 2016/17 financial year, R1.1billion in national government funds via the Emergency Housing Programme and the Upgrading of Informal Settlements Programme had been made available to upgrade informal settlements across the province.