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Macassar housing project beneficiaries outraged by yet another delay

Macassar backyard dwellers have expressed frustration at yet another delay in the housing development in the area.

The development, which is expected to provide state-subsidised homes to 2469 beneficiaries, started in 2019. In April last year four armed men tied up two security guards at the site and made away with batteries and fuel in all the machines. Now the beneficiaries allege that since the beginning of the year, there had been no activity on the site.

Community leader Christiaan Steward, who wrote to mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis last month expressing the beneficiaries’ frustrations, said further delays to this project were unacceptable. “Every year they say construction will start and every time the period arrives, another excuse surfaces. In 2021 they said they will start building in August and postponed it to September.

“After this also failed, we were told that construction would not commence until earlier this year. It is unacceptable that the City has been lying to the people for the past 20 years and has brought frustration to the community,” he said. Steward said the housing list in Macassar was getting longer as there had been no housing development in the area in more than 15 years.

In September last year, the City said construction of the houses for phase 1 was expected to start next month with the civil works for phase 2 to be completed in October last year and the civil works for phase 3 in June this year. One of the beneficiaries, Geraldine Vries, said another frustration was that the beneficiaries didn’t know in which phase of development their houses were allocated.

Vries also lambasted the housing committee, which she said was made up of members who were not beneficiaries of the project. She said they were making decisions on their behalf while they had no say in the project. Human Settlements mayoral committee member Malusi Booi said the tender for the construction of top structures in phase 1 closed at the end of November, before the builders’ holiday.

He said the bid evaluation process was in process, after which the recommended award will be submitted to the Bid Adjudication Committee. “After all legal and contractual processes have been completed, it is anticipated that physical work is to commence on 1 July 2023,” he said.

Booi said if everything goes as planned, the first beneficiaries in Phase 1 would be given occupation by the end of the year.

Source: www.iol.co.za

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Macassar housing project beneficiaries outraged by yet another delay

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