The civil service construction tender process for the project is under way.
The first stage of the city’s Masiphumelele Phase 4 housing project, earmarked for qualifying applicants living in Masiphumelele backyards and the informal settlement which is situated in the wetland, will see the construction of 227 fully serviced sites on which subsidised units will be built at a later stage. Stage two, comprising 96 fully serviced sites and subsidised houses, will follow at a later stage.
A total of R50m has been allocated for the first and second stages and if all goes according to plan, the civil services for stage one will be constructed between September 2016 and June 2017, while the stage one houses will be built between July 2017 and June 2018.
Construction on stage two will start when the temporary relocation area (TRA) located directly north of the Fish Eagle Park Industrial Area is decommissioned. This is yet to be determined.
"We are doing everything that we can to ease the acute housing need in Masiphumelele and also in many of the other areas across the metro. In areas such as Masiphumelele, where residents are well organised on political and civic levels, we are absolutely dependent on the support and the cooperation from the residents and the leadership of the community," said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Human Settlements, Councillor Benedicta van Minnen.
"City-wide and far too often, our projects are delayed because of a lack of assistance at grassroots level, for various reasons. This is to the detriment of our most vulnerable residents and our aim of enhancing the delivery of housing opportunities and basic services as a means of driving redress.
"We also ask members of the community for their assistance by helping us to keep the land earmarked for this project clear of any illegal structures. The illegal erection of structures will be to the severe detriment of the legitimate beneficiaries of the project," said van Minnen.
