Sunday, February 24, 2008

Delft Rising

...Chaos erupted in Delft this week after the Cape High Court ruled that the invading families had to leave. A heavy contingent of police, driving Nyalas, blasted people with rubber bullets and stun grenades. Belongings were ripped from homes and piled on a nearby open stretch of land

At the launch of the project in 2006, Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu said: “The N2 corridor provides us with the opportunity to address a whole range of injustices of the past, starting with the disinherited communities of District Six ... to the dislocated back-yarders who have waited for years for an opportunity to own a house; to the informal settlers of this area who took the decision to clear the bush and put up their shacks.”

But, two years later, Rose and others like her are caught in a maelstrom of misery and anger swirling around Gateway — which, together with other housing schemes in the province, are only denting an official housing backlog of 380,000 families. The national housing backlog stands at 2.2- million...

How Gateway homes are allocated:

PRINCE Xhanti Sigcawu, general manager of Thubelisha, the project manager of the N2 Gateway Pilot Project, said allocation worked like this:

  • If the combined family income is under R1,500 a month, they will qualify for a free Breaking New Ground house (BNG), which will replace RDP houses. BNG homes are 40m2 with two bedrooms, open-plan kitchen, a lounge and a bathroom and toilet.

  • Families earning between R1,501 to R3,500 a month make a once-off payment of R2479 for a BNG home.

  • Families with a combined income of between R3,501 and R7,000 will not receive a free house. Instead they qualify for a bonded house. They are entitled to a subsidy which will be used as a deposit. Bonded homes cost between R180,000 to R450,000. These homes are between 45m2 and 90m2 and have up to four bedrooms.

  • Those who don’t want to purchase a home and earn up to R5,000 qualify for a rental home. Prices range from between R500 for a bachelor flat to R1,050 for a two-bedroom house.

  • - The Times

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