The construction of 236 houses under the People's Housing Process (PHP) project is gaining momentum in Kewtown, near Athlone.
Already 50 houses have been completed in the past five weeks while the rest are at different stages of completion.
The project is set for completion before Christmas and is being driven by the provincial Housing Department, the community, banks and 153 volunteer construction students from Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT).
The project was first mooted in 1993 and was meant to accommodate 100 backyard dwellers from Kewtown, another 100 from Bokmakierie and 36 from Belgravia.
Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool and Housing MEC Richard Dyantyi on Thursday addressed more than a hundred Kewtown residents to mark the continuation of the project. Rasool urged people to stop looking at housing projects in the province along racial lines.
"We are busy with a non-racial programme," he said, adding that accusations that the government was building more houses for people in Khayelitsha than in Mitchells Plain should stop.
He said the government was doing everything in its capacity to provide accommodation for everyone. In 1994 when the ANC government came to power the housing budget per year was R447-million. It now stood at R1,2-billion.
"More and more of our people need houses," he said.
Dyantyi told the gathering that by helping people acquire their own properties, the government was in the process of creating wealth for them.
"Recipients of government housing subsidies should not sell their houses until they have lived in them for at least eight years," said Rasool. - Cape Argus
Already 50 houses have been completed in the past five weeks while the rest are at different stages of completion.
The project is set for completion before Christmas and is being driven by the provincial Housing Department, the community, banks and 153 volunteer construction students from Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT).
The project was first mooted in 1993 and was meant to accommodate 100 backyard dwellers from Kewtown, another 100 from Bokmakierie and 36 from Belgravia.
Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool and Housing MEC Richard Dyantyi on Thursday addressed more than a hundred Kewtown residents to mark the continuation of the project. Rasool urged people to stop looking at housing projects in the province along racial lines.
"We are busy with a non-racial programme," he said, adding that accusations that the government was building more houses for people in Khayelitsha than in Mitchells Plain should stop.
He said the government was doing everything in its capacity to provide accommodation for everyone. In 1994 when the ANC government came to power the housing budget per year was R447-million. It now stood at R1,2-billion.
"More and more of our people need houses," he said.
Dyantyi told the gathering that by helping people acquire their own properties, the government was in the process of creating wealth for them.
"Recipients of government housing subsidies should not sell their houses until they have lived in them for at least eight years," said Rasool. - Cape Argus
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