56 Mhlontlo Families Receive New Homes Ahead of Christmas in R65m Eastern Cape Project
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Fifty-six vulnerable families in the Kumkani Mhlontlo Local Municipality have received newly built homes under a R65 million Eastern Cape human settlements project targeting 210 houses.
A total of 56 vulnerable families in the Kumkani Mhlontlo Local Municipality in the Eastern Cape will spend Christmas 2026 in newly built homes after Human Settlements MEC Siphokazi Lusithi handed over the units as part of the Mhlontlo Destitute 210 project.
The project provides for the construction of 210 houses for households living in mud and other unsafe structures across all 26 wards of the municipality, as part of the department's intervention to provide beneficiaries with safer, more secure and dignified homes.
Lusithi said the Eastern Cape government had invested a total of R65 million in the project, and that the handover was implemented by local small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs), with materials primarily sourced within the municipality.
A total of eight SMMEs were appointed to participate in the implementation of the project, creating opportunities for local businesses to contribute to the delivery of government's human settlements programmes and to create jobs in the area.
One of the beneficiaries, 43-year-old Andisiwe Nqweniso, an unemployed mother of three, said her family had been living in a two-room mud structure that had deteriorated significantly. She said the new home offered her family safety and dignity, and that she hoped to find work to invest in her children's education.
The completion and handover of the first 56 houses marks progress towards an overall target of 260 houses in the municipality. The department previously handed over 130 housing units to vulnerable families in the Port St Johns Local Municipality at a cost of R23 million, under Phase One of Project 350.