Housing MMC unhappy with slow progress of Marabastad townlands project
“The housing backlog in our country is very high. I will hold the project team leaders accountable to the time frames they will be giving me,” says the MMC.
Tshwane human settlements MMC Ofentse Madzebatela is unhappy with the slow progress of the Marabastad townlands project.
“It is long overdue,” Madzebatela told Rekord.
“The housing backlog in our country is very high. I have, therefore, asked the team to give me time frames as to when we will deliver this project. I am going to hold the project team leaders accountable for the time frames they will be giving me.”
He said a major obstacle delaying the project was the metro’s financial issues, adding that the project was heavily reliant on grant funding.
“We sometimes receive the grant money late. We also have an agreement with the Social Housing Regulatory Authority (SHRA), so a certain amount of money comes from them too.”
Madzebatela, however, assured residents that the current coalition government will see the project to its completion regardless of the challenges they faced.
His department will also deal with all the outstanding issues such as the electrical faults identified by the contractors. He said this would be addressed in a week as it was not so much a major issue.
His comments came after Madzebatela held an oversight visit to the project on Tuesday.
He was accompanied by officials from the Housing Company Tshwane (HCT) – the metro’s social housing entity.
The project offers subsidised rental rates in a prime location close to the inner city and various workplaces.
It is considered to be one of the country’s biggest social housing ventures and consists of 1 200 mixed units. It will benefit residents who do not qualify for government-sponsored housing or earn enough to qualify for home loans, the so-called “missing middle”.
According to the metro, the first phase entailed 211 units being allocated to tenants who have already moved in.
“Another approved group of 21 tenants will move in by the end of this month, totalling 232 tenants thus far. There are, however, some teething challenges such as plumbing and electrical faults that we identified and will soon be resolved,” the municipality said in a statement.
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