Three housing projects are currently underway in the DA led Kouga Municipality.
“Human settlements is not a core function of local government, but municipalities have a role to play, especially with the provision of bulk services,” said Kouga Executive Mayor Horatio Hendricks.
He said it was well known that the building of new government-subsidised housing came to a standstill under the previous regime.
“This changed 18 months ago when work started on the top structures of 391 houses at Kruisfontein.
“The Kruisfontein 391 project, as it is popularly known, is one of three human settlements projects currently underway in the Kouga region. A further five projects are at an advanced planning stage.”
He said the beneficiary list for Kruisfontein 391 had been completed.
“The municipality’s Human Settlements section will, as soon as all the houses are occupied, verify that the correct beneficiaries are in the houses.
“Once the project is handed over to Kouga, I will propose the name of ‘Van Lingen Park’, in memory of our late Mayor.”
He said of concern was that some of the houses were handed over to beneficiaries by the contractor in December 2018, without the municipality or provincial Department of Human Settlements having inspected the quality of workmanship.
“The second current project is Pellsrus 220, where the contractor is on site to install internal services. The provincial Department has appointed the same contractor to build the top structures of the houses, but construction has not yet started due to delays, on province’s side, with the building plans.
“The approval of beneficiaries by the Department for Pellsrus 220 is also at an advanced stage, with 218 subsidy applications having been approved and the remaining two awaiting approval.
“The biggest current project, one with the potential to reduce the number of informal houses in Jeffreys Bay significantly, is the Ocean View 1500 project.”
He said the Ocean View project had proven tricky to coordinate.
“More than 150 of the prospective beneficiaries have had to be moved to a temporary relocation area as they are in the way of installation work.
“The temporary site has been pegged, access roads have been made, communal taps and chemical toilets are in place and an electrical connection has been provided to each of the 168 households occupying a formal site.
“A total of 1068 beneficiaries have been approved for the project thus far while a further 191 subsidy applications have been submitted and are awaiting approval.”
He said the municipal Human Settlements section was further in the process of replacing 333 prospective beneficiaries who were on Council’s approved list but never returned to the office to complete a subsidy form.
Tags: housing project kouga
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