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Human Settlements Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi has given the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan Municipality in Gqeberha, Eastern Cape, seven days to provide her with a plan to turnaround human settlements delivery in the metro.

The Minister, accompanied by MEC Nonceba Kontsiwe, made these remarks after getting a briefing from the Metro and the provincial department of human settlements, on the work being done to resolve the slow pace of delivery of human settlements projects. “We need a tangible plan, a turnaround strategy that will give us confidence on interventions to improve the Metro performance,” said Minister Kubayi, adding that the municipality has been lagging behind in completing planned projects, which ultimately leads to overall under-performance.

“The Metro should not embark on projects that are not making an impact, but should have multi-year pipeline delivery plans to maximise on the available resources, thereby ensuring that a majority of people rightfully receive services,” she added.

The Metro, lead by the Executive Mayor, Cllr Eugene Johnson, together with MMC for Human Settlements, Cllr Shulling Hazel-Lindoor, made an undertaking that the turnaround plan will be developed within the next seven (7) days.

The Ministerial delegation, amongst others, received a briefing from the Metro on performance and reports focused on areas that require urgent interventions, such as blocked projects, title deeds, and emergency housing.

These include the Chatty 491 newly-built Zanemvula Mega Project, which in total will deliver an estimated 13 500 houses, the Bethelsdorp 693 Rectification Project located 15km from Gqeberha, which entails the demolition and re-building of 693 housing units by women-owned SMME contractors and the Steve Biko Social Housing Project - a social housing project for rental comprising of commercial and heritage facilities.

The development, comprising of 109 units, some of which have sea-side views, is a conversion of three buildings in the CBD, namely; the Steve Biko, Munford and Old Mill Building.

 

Issued by the Department of Human Settlements