Cape Town – The City of Cape Town has handed over newly completed Breaking New Ground (BNG) homes at its Gugulethu Infill housing project.
Human Settlements Mayoral Committee Member, Councillor Carl Pophaim, and officials in the directorate on Friday visited the project to celebrate with qualifying beneficiaries and to check on the project’s progress.
The project, which stretches over two sites, Erf 8448 in Gugulethu and Mau Mau in Nyanga, is back on track after experiencing several challenges in recent years.
The City said it has “now completely taken over the project”, which will mean more rapid progress to completion.
“I am thrilled to be here in Gugulethu today at our Erf 8448 site to celebrate with the project’s new homeowners,” said Councillor Pophaim.
The subsidised housing project has been subject to not only contractor challenges, but many complexities and delays including the Covid-19 national lockdown, extortion attempts, the unlawful occupation of partially completed units at the Mau Mau site and vandalism to completed works.
“But today we honour the project teams, contractors and, most importantly, our beneficiaries,” said Councillor Pophaim.
“The Gugulethu Infill housing project will ultimately deliver 1 004 homes to qualifying beneficiaries and their families. This is made up of 570 units at the Gugulethu site and 434 at Mau Mau.
“On the Mau Mau site, 131 units have been successfully completed and handed over to date despite the myriad complexities of this project.
“The City will continue to do all it can to provide housing opportunities to those who need it most.”
Councillor Pophaim added: “Our teams remain dedicated to completing the Gugulethu Infill housing project for the beneficiaries and their families.
“Work on site is progressing well and will be completed as soon as possible.
“Thank you to our communities, City teams, and project steering committees for the hard work and dedication to move this project forward and to move the rightful beneficiaries into their new homes.”
Beneficiaries of City housing projects are selected by the City’s Housing Allocation Policy and Housing Needs Register to ensure housing opportunities are made available fairly and transparently which prevents queue jumping.
Anonymous tip-offs are welcome: Residents can give anonymous tip-offs if they are aware of illegal activity that is taking place, such as vandalism or attempted unlawful occupation; that has happened or is still to happen.
Please call 112 from a cell phone (toll-free) and 107 from a landline or 021 480 7700 for emergencies.
