Bitou delivers first 81 houses
The Bitou Municipality has handed over the first 81 low-cost houses in its 641-unit project in KwaNokuthula where frustration over the housing backlog was used to fuel unrest in 2007.
The 81 homes form part of the first phase of the three-phase project, which includes 410 single homes and 231 high-density homes.
Deputy Human Settlements Minister Zoliswa Kota Fredericks attended the hand-over ceremony where one recipient, Thembeka Nzelane, was so overcome with joy that she wept in her arms.
Bitou community services manager Monde Stratu said apart from the 113 homes under construction, another 92 were due to be completed this financial year, with a total project value of R25.3-million. The remainder of the homes should be completed over the next two years.
“The annual allocation (provincial funding for housing) is not fixed and the municipality always applies for additional funding, for instance in 2009/10 the allocation for Bitou Municipality was about R11.8-million and finally increased to R63.9-million in March 2010.”
Despite these amounts, Stratu said with a housing backlog of about 8000 and inward migration from especially the Eastern Cape, the municipality had difficulty catching up.
“It would be very difficult for the municipality to catch up on the backlog as the allocation of funding is never adequate to alleviate this.”
The envisaged provincial housing allocations for Bitou for the following three financial years are R14-million (increased later to R28-million), R16.3-million and R15.6-million.
Stratu said the biggest challenge to municipalities in housing delivery was obtaining project approvals from the Western Cape government given the necessary funding, which was “never adequate”.
Despite the difficulties, Bitou has made massive strides since the last election in delivering homes and hopes to construct around 4600 more by 2017.
Source: The Herald Online
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