MEC Madikizela has given the assurance that the project will receive approval from his office as it forms part of the department's priorities. Madikizela commented on the report the Oudtshoorn Municipality tabled before him in a meeting attended by the Oudtshoorn Municipal Council, Municipal Management and officials from the Western Cape Department of Human Settlement.
Madikizela told the meeting that part of his visit not to Oudtshoorn and other municipalities was also aimed at learning about challenges facing the municipalities regarding Human Settlements related projects and how such challenges were addressed, more particularly spending commitments of housing funds.
Responding to the MEC's concern's on the credibility of the housing waiting list, the acting Municipal Manager, Mr Ronnie Lottering said: "We did embark on a housing waiting list verification process which was completed in February 2013. The information is now being captured and an independent service provider will be appointed for auditing of the new housing database and we striving towards completion of the database by the end of May 2013."
While MEC Madikizela praised the municipality for good performance in its housing delivery process based on allocated funds he also advised that the municipality must focus on beneficiaries in categories of senior citizen, people living with serious disabilities and farm workers.
The Acting Director for Community Services Directorate also Manager Special Project in the Municipal Human Settlement Department, Mr Gavin Juthe, highlighted the following projects as being completed:
- 129 infill site projects (Bridgton and surroundings) 2011
- Infill site project of 48 housing units in the Mandela Heights area near Toekomsrus, project completed in 2012
- Kairos housing project, 23 units
- Services of land for the 161 sites in De Rust, completed by 30 March 2013
- Basic bulk services for 875 housing units in Rosevalley has also been completed.
Mr Juthe furthermore informed the meeting of human settlement projects to the value of R27-million which are being planned. "The construction of the 161 housing units for De Rust will commence in July 2013," he said. MEC Madikizela indicated that the servicing of 300 erven for Rosevalley will be approved by his department.
Human Settlement Plan
The municipality has recently embarked on a campaign to get input towards the deve-lopment of the Human Settlement Plan and has received valuable contributions from the community; this document will now form part of the Spatial Development Framework of Council (SDF) which will be completed by June 2014.
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