The tender for Cape Town’s multibillion-rand N2 Gateway Project, involving the building of high-density, low cost housing units in informal settlements adjacent to the national road on the outskirts of the city, has been won by the Sobambisana Consortium.
Announcing the name of the winning contractor at a media briefing held at Parliament on Monday, Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu said the project was a combined one, involving national, provincial and local government.
”This is a pilot project. The lessons learned here will be applied across the country,” she said.
Her announcement follows Cabinet’s adoption of the Comprehensive Housing Plan in September last year. The cost of the N2 Gateway Project, according to officials, will be between R1,6-billion and R2,2-billion.
The Sobambisana Consortium comprises six companies — Asla Devco, Asla Magwebu, Citrine, Khayalethu Projects, KCBDC, and Power Developments.
According to an overview plan of the project, details from which were released at the briefing, the areas targeted for development include the informal settlement of Joe Slovo — where building is set to start first — as well as areas along the N2 known as Barcelona, Kanana, Lotus Canal, Europe, New Rest and Bunga, and an
area near Athlone. The plan also includes the building of houses in District Six.
According to Sisulu, the N2 Gateway Project is to be fast-tracked and given top priority, although her department is unable to say when it will be completed, or how many units will be built in total.
Speaking to the South African Press Association after the briefing, ministry spokesperson Thabang Chiloane said this information was not available because ”we are still consulting with the community”, and an enumeration of the
numbers of people in the targeted areas was still under way.
Journalists heard at the briefing that work started last week, and contractors were laying sewer pipes in the Joe Slovo area.
Sobambisana spokesperson Mark Julie said construction would proceed ”at a very rapid pace”.
The development essentially involves small blocks of two, three and four-storey-high flats, each block — according to a model shown at the briefing — built around a central courtyard.
Within each block would be various configurations of one, two and three-bedroomed units, built at a density of 150 units per hectare.
However, Julie said ”there will be quite a lot of green and open space … with the emphasis on human settlement”.
Sisulu described the project as a ”win-win situation for everyone in Cape Town… that will provide a real economic impetus for the city”.
However, she warned there would be many squatter communities who would be disgruntled their’s were not chosen for upliftment.
”Some communities… might feel they too deserve a decent house, or a roof over their heads, or they have been in backyards; you could name any number of people who will be disgruntled.”
”We cannot give houses right now to all… this [the N2 Gateway Project] is a pilot project, and from the lessons that we learn from this, it will be possible for us to ensure a complete roll-out.
The department planned to go out ”door-to-door” to explain this to communities.
”We hope they understand this,” Sisulu said.
It is understood the units will sell for between R35 000 and R60 000.
According to her department, there are an estimated 84 000 to 143 000 people living in informal settlements around the Mother City. – Sapa