Following a recent oversight of the Bridge City Housing Development project in KwaMashu, the Democratic Alliance (DA) have announced their plan to appeal for an investigation into the cause of the project’s delay.
DA spokesperson on Housing and Ward 110 Councillor, Zamani Khuzwayo said the oversight followed unsuccessful attempts to get answers regarding the R200 million project that was planned to be completed in December 2022. He said, “It was approved in 2019, set to begin in 2020 and be completed in December 2022. Almost five years later and the project isn’t even 50% complete.”
Khuzwayo added that the project seemed abandoned for months and did not look close to making progress as there were 20 workers on site during their visit. Additionally, Khuzwayo shared that some of the equipment was piling up and gathering rust at the site; on top of employees not being paid for months.
“Following this oversight, the DA will therefore submit a request to the Municipal Speaker, Councillor Thabani Nyawose under the Promotion of Access to Information Act 2 of 2000 (PAIA) to obtain information on the causes of the delay. It has become a norm for development projects to be delayed by officials and politicians who are looking to line their own pockets,” Khuzwayo said.
Khuzwayo called for the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Human Settlements to intervene and ensure that this development is completed timeously. He concluded that ratepayers are at the receiving end as they require housing.
The Bridge City development aimed to connect Phoenix, Inanda, Ntuzuma and KwaMashu (PINK) with urbanisation and economic opportunities.
eThekwini spokesperson Mduduzi Ncalane said that the development is private and not initiated by the municipality. He added that the municipality’s only involvement was providing a letter of support in line with the social housing principles.
Ncalane said, “In general, the role of the municipality in the provision of social housing is as follows: A municipality must, where there is a demand for social housing within its municipal area, as part of the municipality’s process of integrated development planning, take all reasonable and necessary steps, within the National and Provincial legislative, regulatory and policy framework.”
Ncalane shared this framework included facilitating social housing delivery in its area of jurisdiction. Additionally, the framework encouraged the development of new social housing stock and the upgrading of existing stock or the conversion of existing non-residential stock.
Ncalane continued, “The framework provides access to land and buildings for social housing development in the designated restructuring zones for social housing institutions to acquire municipal rental stock and to municipal infrastructure and services for approved projects in designated restructuring zones.”
He concluded that the extent permitted under the Local Government: Municipal Finance Act, 2003 (Act 56 of 2003), and the Local Government: Municipal Systems Act, 2000 (Act 32 of 2000), allowed for initiation and motivation for the identification of restructuring zones and enter into performance agreements with the social housing institutions.
Ncalane provided a report by property developers Instratin (Pty) Ltd – who were in charge of the project. In the report, Instratin shared that their first 201 units will be completed by April 2025.
