The City of Cape Town hosted the National and Deputy Ministers of Human Settlements for a housing project tour today, 19 January 2022. The tour was preceded by a presentation by relevant officials.

The City’s Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis and Mayoral Committee Member for Human Settlements, Councillor Malusi Booi, as well as senior Human Settlements Directorate officials, hosted the National Minister and Deputy Minister of Human Settlements, Mmamoloko Kubayi and Pamela Tshwete, as well as Western Cape Minister of Human Settlements Tertuis Simmers for a tour of housing projects in the metro.

The visiting delegation was given the opportunity to tour the City’s Glenhaven social housing project, Bosasa housing development in Mfuleni, an unlawfully occupied site in Driftsands, and the fire-impacted site in Masiphumelele where residents were assisted with temporary units and will receive permanent housing in due course. These projects benefit some of the more vulnerable beneficiaries in the metro.

The City has a number of types of affordable housing opportunities available to qualifying beneficiaries. These include its Breaking New Ground (BNG) houses (formerly known as RDP houses), Community Residential Units (CRUs) (also referred to as Council Rental Units), Social Housing Programme and Upgrading of Informal Settlements Programme (UISP). Details and updates on each of these housing types were discussed with the delegation.

A number of the risks associated with housing provision in the metro including rapid urbanisation, limited land availably, vandalism and theft, and criminality putting staff, contractors and communities at risk, among others, were discussed.

Speaking about the limited availability of land, Mayor Hill-Lewis emphasised the importance of government-owned land parcels being used for affordable housing opportunities.

‘The land parcels that the City has are a small fraction of the size of the land parcels that national government owns in the city. I refer just to three land parcels – Ysterplaat, Wingfield and Youngsfield. We do not need three army bases in the city that are largely unused. They could be used for a much more profoundly positive social good if they were to be unlocked right now. We will do our part and we will speak to our partners to unlock more social housing in our city. I am absolutely committed to seeing that happen. Minister, we would love your assistance with your cabinet colleagues to say, “let’s start with one of those unused army bases and let’s show what we can do”. With the stroke of a pen we could change the lives of tens of thousands of Capetonians and residents in the Western Cape,’ said Mayor Hill-Lewis.

‘The City provided feedback on its solid grant fund performance and housing delivery statistics for the past few years. Based on the current rate of delivery and pipeline, the City will meet its annual delivery targets by the end of the fourth quarter. This shows the City’s continuing commitment to deliver housing opportunities to our residents across the metro. Also discussed was the unprecedented rise in unlawful occupation of land since March 2020. These land occupations have a profound impact on the City, its planning and development and on its human settlements programmes. Some large projects have already been lost due to unlawful occupation while others have to be reconfigured due to partial unlawful occupation, the details of which were discussed with the delegation. The City also highlighted the progress it had made with security of tenure and the regularisation of occupants.

‘We demonstrated our continued commitment to housing delivery for Minister Kubayi, Deputy Minister Tshwete and Minister Simmers and we showed how we work hard to find solutions for our residents. The City is committed to service delivery through the provision of affordable housing opportunities, including the projects which we saw today. We thank the Minister and Deputy Minister for this opportunity to show them what we are doing in Cape Town. I look forward to our ongoing collaborations for the benefit of our residents,’ said Councillor Booi.

Source: City Of Cape Town