Pretoria RDP houses built with mayoral mansion auction money on track
“Nothing is more gratifying than to witness, what was once a costly single mansion with little to no benefit for Tshwane residents, being turned into decent housing for 40 families who have been waiting for years to have a home to call their own,” said Solly Msimanga.
Progress is on track at Atteridgeville, west of Pretoria, where 40 RDP houses are being built with the proceeds of the mayoral mansion auction last week, Rekord East reports.
“I am pleased that we will soon be handing over the finished houses and issuing title deeds so that recipients have legal ownership of their homes,” said Tshwane mayor Solly Msimanga.
Msimanga cautioned that “selling and disposing” of the metro’s properties should not be the “norm” when the mansion went under the hammer for R5,1 million in November 2017.
He, however, said the metro was “forced” to do it as an investigation had revealed that while R12 million had been spent on renovations to the property the house still had defects.
“Given the market value of the property, it is unlikely that we will recoup all the money wasted on exorbitant renovations,” he said at the time.
During Tuesday’s inspection, Msimanga said: “Nothing is more gratifying than to witness, what was once a costly single mansion with little to no benefit for Tshwane residents, being turned into decent housing for 40 families who have been waiting for years to have a home to call their own.”
He added that the site, in extension 19, had been abuzz with activity since the house was auctioned off.
“The stands have been serviced by the department of utility services and handed over to the department of human settlements recently to begin construction of the structures,” Msimanga said.
Alternative methods, which were “environmentally friendly, durable, easy to maintain and aesthetically pleasing”, were to be used for the construction of the 40 houses.
Msimanga further extended his gratitude to the two MMCs who were involved in the project.
Beneficiaries of the houses were set to be given an opportunity to work on building their own homes to promote “a sense of ownership, pride and dignity”.
“Identification of beneficiaries was also done in consultation with the ward councillors,” Msimanga said.
“It was our desire to promote full beneficiary participation in the building of these homes.”
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