73 Maroela South Housing Project units to be built by November - report

The City’s housing development department said 73 units were expected to be completed by November in the Maroela South Housing project if no unforeseen circumstances prevented it.

This was revealed in a report in the Sub-council 2 agenda on Wednesday last week.

A contractor was appointed on April 3 and the process of recruiting a community liaison officer and sub-contractors was ongoing, said Shaun Moodley from the department.

He said the project is being implemented by their department and that the project has a total of 570 serviced sites - 395 subsidised housing units and 175 gap housing units.

The project is located in Kraaifontein East surrounded by Kleinbegin, Bloekombos and Wallacedene.

The beneficiary administration and subsidy application process started in April 2022, Mr Moodley said.

The department took over 800 names from the housing database for consideration in the project.

SMSs were sent to applicants to attend sessions at the Northdene Community Hall, which resulted in 281 applications being submitted to the City’s subsidy office and provincial government’s department of human settlement for review and approval, he said.

So far 217 subsidies have been approved, he said in the report, adding that the beneficiary administration and subsidy application resumed in May 2023 for other applications.

Ward 7 councillor Grant Twigg enquired if the sites were patrolled to avoid land invasion.

Mr Moodley said safety patrols were done regularly to safeguard the site and that there was no reported incident.

Ward 111 councillor Brenda Hansen asked about the residents of the Mooi trap Temporary Relocation Area (TRA) in Wallacedene who have not been assisted as beneficiaries.

In the previous meeting, the report indicated, the department informed the Sub-council 2 councillors that 200 names were received for the community and only 30 of those names can be approved for subsidies.

The councillors agreed that this was unacceptable as the people of Mooi trap are one of the communities that was on the database for many years and that they needed to be accommodated on the beneficiary list.

The Sub-council resolved to ask the department to investigate the possibility of accommodating more residents of the community in the housing project and give the feedback in the next Sub-council meeting.