Spectacular views come at a price
"The first piece of land we had planned to build the homes on, proved to be unsuitable for construction, thus we had to buy a new area along the hillside to become the new construction site."
The Siyahlala-la housing project is behind schedule.
Following two major setbacks, the municipality is still in the process of delivering bulk services to the area, before construction of the first phase of homes begin.
Last year, former provincial MEC for Human Settlements, Ravi Pillay, predicted the housing project would begin in February this year.
He said Government hoped to begin the building of homes this year, and by the end of next year, most of the homes would be complete. “The first phase of construction will include 837 units for Siyahlala-la and there are three phases planned in total,” explained Mr Pillay.
According to portfolio councillor of human settlements, Matthew Shunmugam, there have been two major reasons for the delays.
“The first piece of land we had planned to build the homes on, proved to be unsuitable for construction, thus we had to buy a new area along the hillside to become the new construction site.”
Although the bulk services are in place in the area, the delivery systems to the homes have yet to be installed.
The new area for the proposed development, undoubtedly provides spectacular views but the hillside has proved to be a massive roadblock in the construction process.
“The hillside is very rocky, and this rock extends deep underground. This underlying bedrock has proven to provide a serious problem for on-site construction,” explained Cllr Shunmugam.
Once this problem has been overcome the housing project will begin in earnest. During his budget speech, Mayor Afzul Rehman, said R10-million had budgeted for to help complete the bulk service delivery.
Due to the bedrock encountered, explosives are currently being used in the project to break down the shale rock and allow the bulk services to be installed.
