BREAKTHROUGH as R322 million secured and "quick win" projects near completion in Uitenhage, Motherwell and other areas

Hundreds of people will receive houses in various parts of Nelson Mandela Bay between February and March this year as efforts to accelerate provision of integrated human settlements begin to bear fruit.

People in the Bay, among others, are in for a happy autumn as they will soon be moving into their houses within the said period, if things go according to plan. A series of project launches and progress updates will be held in due course to hand over projects and give communities dates as to when they are likely to occupy their houses.

This comes shortly after a public participation process around the annual and mid term reports for 2007/08 and 2008/09 respectively was completed this week for public commentary. It also comes parallel to community engagement workshops by the Housing & Land Directorate of the Municipality in an attempt to keep the community on board as housing delivery gets accelerated.

"Housing delivery has been and is still an area of concern for the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality. We have applied our minds to its intricacies and we are now rising to the occasion. We are gearing up to deliver on our promises to our people," said Executive Mayor, Cllr Nondumiso Maphazi. She said communities were an important part of the housing delivery chain and needed to be engaged at all times.

Meanwhile, the Seven Year Housing Turnaround Plan of the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality is beginning to bear fruit, just a few months after its implementation started. In terms of the medium term report, 1 400 houses were built and handed over to beneficiaries between June and December last year. The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality acknowledges that it previously fell short of its target, and this was due to delays in projects approval, EIAs, and performance challenges of contractors. In addition, the majority of the Municipality’s running housing projects were blocked since 2007 and to unblock them additional funding was required. Funding to the tune of R322 million has now been secured and the Municipality is committed to deliver on its annual target for this year. Projects which were blocked have now been unblocked, private sector has been engaged to beef up capacity and systems and processes have been developed.

The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality has also approved a 7 year Housing Delivery Plan which includes the Informal Settlements Plan. A total of 23 projects have been identified and funding reserved by Provincial government for implementation in the 2009/2010 financial year. A Rectification Programme with a total budget of R205 million will be implemented over the next three years. Linked to the Informal Settlement Upgrading Programme, families have been relocated from (what is termed) ’stressed’ areas to serviced areas where people have access to essential services such as water, sanitation and electricity.

"These attest to our tireless efforts to bring about positive changes in the lives of our people. They are some of the reasons why we have been rated among the best performing municipalities in South Africa and are in the top two when it comes to spending per resident according to the Municipal Performance Index. Working together with our communities, we can do more," said Mayor Maphazi.