Work is due to start on the City of Cape Town’s huge R5.6bn project to replace apartheid-era hostels with 15 000 rental flats.
|||Cape Town - Work is due to start on the City of Cape Town’s huge R5.6 billion project to replace apartheid-era hostels with 15 000 rental flats for thousands of families in Langa, Gugulethu and Nyanga.
The first phase, for which R170 million has already been allocated, starts in October with the construction of more than 400 rental flats in Langa.
At least 1 000 families, many of whom are living in cramped hostel rooms meant for just one occupant, will move into these flats over the next two years. A further 837 units will be built by 2018.
Mayoral committee member for housing Tandeka Gqada said the completion of the project depends on whether the city can acquire enough land for the new units, and a constant stream of funding.
The National Treasury allocates funds to the city each year for housing, and this will be used for housing programmes, including the hostel development in Langa.
Gqada said the existing tenants of the New Flats and Special Quarters hostels would be top of the list of beneficiaries. This stage of the development will go up on a vacant site in Langa. Once the tenants from the New Flats and Special Quarters hostels are accommodated, these buildings will be demolished to make way for further development, said Gqada.
Residents of the Siyahlahla informal settlement will also be considered for flats, which will be three-and four-storeys, in keeping with the city’s densification policy. Each unit will have two bedrooms, a kitchenette, a toilet and shower, solar-heated water systems, wash-lines and a play area.
Gqada said city-owned hostels had provided single-sex dormitories for migrant labourers who had “bed cards” during apartheid.
Since this legislation had been repealed many of these “bed-card holders” were joined by their families, leading to severe overcrowding and the deterioration of conditions at these dwellings.
The project is being overseen by a steering committee with representatives of the affected communities to ensure the “success of this major development”.
This committee - which includes representatives from the hostels and informal settlements, the ward committees and council officials - would also help with the identification and verification of the beneficiaries.
Gqada said there had been years of public participation and that a project management team was set up in 2009 to gather information about the city’s hostels and to source suitable land for the new developments.
According to the heritage impact assessment for the project, the historical significance of the hostel sites should be preserved and recorded once the buildings are demolished for the flats to be built.
There should also be an interpretive plaque explaining the history of the site and the significance of past residents such as Chris Hani and Hamilton Naki, the self-taught surgeon who assisted Chris Barnard with the first heart transplant in 1967.
anel.lewis@inl.co.za
Cape Argus