Cape Town - Construction work work is continuing at the Delft mega housing projects, which recently fell prey to extortion and criminality, and the Gugulethu Infill project.
Human settlements mayoral member Malusi Booi and City human settlements department officials on Monday visited these troubled housing projects to check on their progress.
The Delft mega housing project along Symphony Way is one of 12 City projects under threat with the potential of impacting 4 500 housing beneficiaries and loss amounting to about R1 billion due to extortion.
It is also where two construction machines and materials were petrol-bombed on Thursday night.
At the same site, three workers were shot in their legs and left wounded on February 4.
The Gugulethu Infill affordable housing project was last year impacted by illegal occupation as well as contractor delays.
Twenty-three beneficiaries had already received their houses in this housing project after the City handed them over in August last year.
However, the majority of the units remain incomplete, with some of them being vandalised.
The project stretches over two sites, Erf 8448 in Gugulethu and Mau Mau in Nyanga, and the infill project will provide 570 homes to qualifying beneficiaries at a cost of R105 million.
At the Gugulethu Infill project, Booi said the City was expecting to hand over more than 30 units to beneficiaries by the end of March.
“Regarding the incomplete units,
Booi said that the City was getting two additional contractors to assist to increase the pace of work.
After the attack on the equipment at the Delft housing site, Booi said the contractors had to remove their additional material from the site to a safer space.
“Upon our visit to the two sites, the contractors were working. I am happy to see that there is a re-establishment of the site. We have assured the two contractors that we will support them on-site.
“We are making progress in the Gugulethu Infill project and are expecting to hand over the units soon. There are security guards at the site, paid for by the City budget, and additional security had been deployed in Delft,” he said.
Booi said the City would ensure that law enforcement teams monitor the two sites.