Award for Bitou Municipality
The Bitou Municipality’s housing projects received an impressive stamp of approval last week when it was presented with two prestigious provincial Govan Mbeki Awards.
The awards were established by the Department of Human Settlements in 2006 and aim to honour local councils for exhibiting best practices in the human settlements sector and to create healthy competition.
It also serves as a monitoring tool to ensure delivery. It was named after late ANC leader and father of South Africa’s former president, Thabo Mbeki, based on his vision to preserve human dignity through the provision of housing for all.
While it was only the first time the Bitou Municipality entered the programme, it managed to win two of the 11 categories in the provincial round of the competition in Cape Town on Thursday April 23.
They competed against several other municipalities in Western Cape and took top honours in the category for the Best Upgrading of an Informal Settlements as well as the Best Female Contractor category.
The prize for Best Upgrading of an Informal Settlement was for Bitou’s Hillview housing development.
“The township of KwaNokuthula has been identified as the first subsidised housing project in the Western Cape and also the first housing project to construct high-density units in the Southern Cape. Despite all challenges since the commencement in 1995, it is fantastic to see how the area has developed and integrated among the various communities. It is certainly a project to be proud of,” Bitou’s manager of human settlements Mark Fourie said.
The Best Female Contractor award went to Franscina Le Roux of Ukhana Projects in New Horizons.
As a wife, mother, businesswoman, and entrepreneur, I know all too well about the daily challenges and responsibilities which we all have to face in our strides to build a better future for the future generations. So it is with gratitude and honour that I applied for the Best Female Contractor in the subsidy market,” Le Roux said.
Bitou and the winners in the other categories will compete in the national awards later this year.
Municipal spokesman Howard Swartz said that during the adjudication process judges took into account the ability of local councils to manage projects and beneficiary lists as well as the municipality’s ability to achieve clean financial administration.
“The representatives of the provincial judging panel paid Bitou a visit on Friday, April 10 and were accompanied by mayor Memory Booysen, the head of community services Monde Stratu as well as Fourie and conducted various site visits for their own verification processes,” Swartz said.
“This award provides motivation to all stakeholders in the human settlements sphere and honours roleplayers in the housing value chain, including building contractors, community-based organisations and building material suppliers that have committed to partner with government in building sustainable human settlements,” he added.