This is in line with the City’s commitment of bringing greater formality to informal settlements where it is possible to do so; to mainstream basic services provision and to improve the lives of its most vulnerable residents amid rapid urbanisation.

The project involves the provision of 440 serviced sites for qualifying beneficiaries. The sites will have sewer and water connections on a one-on-one-on basis and black-top roads and stormwater services will be constructed. It is located in an Eskom-supply area. The City will coordinate with Eskom regarding electricity services.

The site is currently being established and the project is expected to be completed in a year’s time if community support and cooperation for the project continues.

‘This is what our work at the City is about: pushing forward despite challenges to honour the human in human settlements. It is so important that all stakeholders continue to support this project and that the best interest of the qualifying beneficiaries is held as the utmost consideration.

‘We are not going to address the extreme housing need in Cape Town and in the rest of South Africa for that matter by focusing only on one type of housing delivery, the formal subsidy housing model or Breaking New Ground programme. We are going to have to be innovative, steadfast and drive the upgrade of informal settlements where it is possible to do so. That is why we have earmarked more than R4 billion for formalising informal accommodation such as informal settlements and backyard dwellings in the next three years.

‘Urbanisation is not a municipal challenge alone, all tiers of government, the private sector and civic organisations, must work together and ensure that we are ahead of the curve with our plans to address rapid urbanisation. We must bring our communities on board with the alternatives that there are on offer. These upgrade projects are therefore steeped in the idea of partnerships. This is also why we take a zero tolerance approach to land invasions as any invasion of existing projects jeopardises our planned interventions. Thank you to the community and to our dedicated informal settlements staff for all that they do on a daily basis to assist our most vulnerable residents,’ said Councillor Booi.