New Horizons and Qolweni leadership irons out housing issues with provincial housing head
Western Cape Human Settlements minister Tertius Simmers is now certain that there will never again be protests by Plettenberg Bay communities over his department’s provision of services.
These were the minister’s words after he had met with the leadership of Qolweni and New Horizon on Friday, to discuss the future of housing developments for both these Bitou communities.
The minister and his department lived up to the promise to revisit the affected Bitou communities on August ll. During a previous meeting with the leadership of these communities, the minister mentioned a 50-50 sharing of the Ebenezer land between beneficiaries from Qolweni and New Horizons.
This left New Horizons residents, especially the backyard dwellers, discontent as they regarded the department s solution to their housing problems as “unacceptable and unfair.” according to New Horizons community leader Claude Terblanche, who said the community was taken aback by the announcement that they would have to share the Ebenezer land with Qolweni RDP beneficiaries.
He said the land was earmarked only for New Horizons, which had been side-lined in the housing development projects in Bitou. with only 62 houses from which backyards dwellers had benefited in 15 years, while other communities, like KwaNokuthula, were still being developed.
This resulted in last week’s follow-up meeting after the department had a chance to relook the 50-50 land share solution.
“Our sentiments didn’t fall on deaf ears,” said Terblanche. since they learnt that New Horizons residents would be the major beneficiaries.
“The minister told us that the land will be shared, but New Horizons will benefit more. At this stage, we are still not certain as to how much of the land we’re going to get. The minister also informed us that the housing development project of 1.450 units will commence April 2020.” explained Terblanche.
According to the minister, going forward, the community leaders from both affected communities will now liaise directly with his office to prevent the spreading of erroneous information – something which he decried during his first encounter with these leaders last month.
Who is Tertius Simmers?
Tertius Simmers is housing MEC in premier Alan Winde’s provincial cabinet following the DA’s election victory in this year ‘s national and provincial elections. Simmers said that during his first month in office he had covered more than 8,000km in the province, visiting various Human Settlements project sites and engaging with a vast cross-section of stakeholders during this period. During his visit to municipalities including Bitou, Breede Valley, CapeAgulhas, Drakenstein, George and Knysna. Simmers heard complaints from residents that they were still on the waiting list after 20 years, while government homes were being sold and let.