Parliament, Cape Town – National government would be pumping R4.6 billion rand over the next four years into fast-tracking housing delivery in the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality as it takes over responsibility of the metro’s human settlements function, Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu said on Thursday.
“We took a decision…in cabinet that the national department of human settlements, supported by the departmens of Treasury, department of COGTA (Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs) and the department of sanitation and water will be intervening in the Nelson Mandela municipality to take over the responsiblities of the division of human settlements there,” Sisulu said.
“We are experiencing grave difficulty there in our supply chain management and the delivery of housing and we’ve decided that we’re going to intervene and with the laws that govern human settlements and aligned with the constitutional provision section 100.”
The R4.6b would come from the human settlements grants, the urban settlements grant, the municipal water infrastructure grant, and the national skills funds.
“We are going to be building 6 000 houses in Bethalsdorp. We will be building 7000 houses in Kayamandi, 2200 houses in Walmer and 491 houses in Chatty,” she said.
The department would also be providing bulk services to some 15,700 residential sites earmarked for future development.
“This is the biggest intervention that government has had but we are also very excited about it because if it works we’ll be able to support municipalities…where they do not have the necessary resources or skills to do what they’re supposed to do,” Sisulu said.
The housing projects would also be used to create jobs in the area.
“We will be using our Housing Development Agency as the lead agency and hoping we would use to a very large extent the same method that is used by public works…that they use in creating public works projects.”
ANA