Cape Town - The Western Cape human settlements department budget has allocated R787 million to employing construction companies owned by women, youth and previously disadvantaged groups for its housing development projects.
This emerged during the discussion of the department’s budget with the standing committee for human settlements when department head Jacqui Samson said the department estimated that 800 jobs would be created in this way.
“In terms of the jobs focus area, the department remains committed to creating jobs and empowerment opportunities and to this end, will continue to spend half of its human settlements development grant allocation benefiting contractors within designated groups,” said Samson.
“Furthermore, the department will continue to facilitate job opportunities through the Expanded Public Works Programme, specifically within the construction industry.”
Committee chairperson Matlhodi Maseko said: “This programme will make the department an important job generator for the province and help to uplift the construction industry, which suffered under the hard lockdown regulations of 2020.”
Committee members Andile Lili (ANC) and Brett Herron (Good) both wanted the department to tell them exactly how much money and which land had been identified to accommodate permanent structures for Masiphumelele.
Human Settlements MEC Tertuis Simmers said: “R150m has been allocated to specific projects. For instance, of this amount R32m is to be utilised for emergency structures of temporary shelter to fire victims in Masiphumelele.
“Then there is another amount of R70.8m from the provincial emergency housing grant which is ultimately earmarked and will only be utilised for the provision of a permanent housing solution for households affected by fire and storm damages in the Masiphumelele disaster as per agreement with the national department.”
On the issue of the where parcels of land have been identified to accommodate permanent structures, human settlement implementation chief director Phila Mayisela said: “The land that has been identified for the permanent solution, as we are referring to it, for Masiphumelele is Erf 5131, which is on the other side of the sports field.
“The City started with the planning for formal development of that part about two years ago, so when the fires happened, we had to regroup to plan to accommodate the affected families
“There was an agreement that the development as planned couldn’t proceed as originally envisaged because we needed to accommodate more than the 800 people who were in the original plan,” said Mayisela.
Cape Argus