Cape Town mayor Patricia De Lille has said that she has managed to keep her promise to residents of Morkel’s Cottage, Strand, by delivering their houses before the end of the year.
Credit: Lismore City Council – NSW Government
The mayor was this week at the key handing over ceremony for five of the families who had been living in informal settlements around the Strand area.
Since the start of October, 55 families have taken ownership of their new houses. The plan is to move families every week as units are being completed.
The City of Cape Town and its contractor started construction on the R146 million project in March this year. The project will eventually provide 547 semi-detached and detached single-storey houses as well as serviced sites for beneficiaries from the informal settlements of Morkel’s Cottage, Beverley Hills and Dark City, as well as beneficiaries from the City’s Housing Database.
With the civil engineering services, such as the internal roads and water and sewer infrastructure, for the first three phases having been completed, and the services for phases 4 and 5 commencing in the coming months, it is anticipated that the entire project will be completed sometime in late 2019.
“It was really touching to see Clara and Piet Fourie open the door to their new home after nearly two decades of living in an informal settlement. They told me how relieved they were to finally escape flooding and shack fires, which they have been victims of in the past three years,” said De Lille.
