Gugulethu backyarders still waiting for 571 promised houses as project stalls
Written on
Backyarders in Gugulethu, Cape Town are still waiting for 571 government houses that were meant to be completed in the 2023/24 financial year, with funding secured and a contractor appointed but no timeline for construction.
Backyarders in Gugulethu, Cape Town have been waiting for years for the construction of 571 government houses on land in NY126 near the Luyolo Community Centre. The houses were meant to have been completed in the 2023/24 financial year. Funding has been secured and a contractor appointed, but there remains no timeline for the project.
Threats of violence by extortionists have delayed construction, and the project was under the Western Cape government infrastructure department but is now in the process of being handed over to the City of Cape Town to implement. Provincial infrastructure department spokesperson Stephen Heyns said internal delays in transferring the project to the City had resulted in the further delay of implementation, though planning and approval processes are done.
Heyns said that due to the security risk on site, the contractor would have required extra guards, which would have exceeded the maximum approved amount for the project, and that year-on-year budget availability is subject to the total grant allocation made to the province and the readiness of each project. He said work could start as soon as project handover is done, but did not give timelines.
In February 2018 a group of backyarders, who dubbed themselves the Gugulethu Seven or G7, erected structures on the land saying they were tired of being overlooked for housing. Nomawethu Maki, one of the G7, said the project is not moving while residents continue to suffer as backyarders, some paying rent they cannot afford, adding that communication from the department was non-existent. Backyarder Mzwakhe Cebibokwe said he has been on the housing waiting list for 20 years.
According to Heyns, the project will have fully subsidised Breaking New Ground homes, but a high-density, multi-storey component is no longer deemed feasible because of the maintenance and management costs associated with sectional title schemes. He said all beneficiaries would be drawn from the housing database, land use planning approvals are in place and services for the human settlements project have been partially installed. The City said it would only respond once all due process has been completed.