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New social housing for Cape Town

25 March 2011

Launching the R75-million Drommedaris Brooklyn Social Housing project in Cape Town this week, Human Settlements Minister Tokyo Sexwale said it was important to house people closer to their place of work as well as other amenities.

The project, located on Koeberg Road in Brooklyn, has been designed to take advantage of the Cape Town's proposed Bus Rapid Transit routes. This means people will not spend longer than necessary getting to and from work.

"We have always said where we stay should be where play, where we pray and where we work," Sexwale said.

The project is part of the department's social housing initiative, that aims to provide accommodation for people who do not qualify for government subsidised houses while also not being able to access home loans from banks.

"What we are witnessing today is the realisation of our long term objectives of ensuring that people who earn between R3 500 and R7 000 are provided with appropriate accommodation closer to work opportunities in the process improving economic conditions."

Transforming inner cities

Sexwale said the project sets a good example of the department's social housing strategy to transform the inner cities, revitalise strategic nodes of development and to address economic, social and spatial dysfunctionalities.

"We want to revitalise and transform our inner cities by creating housing opportunities and giving a chance to people who would otherwise be overlooked by banks for mortgage bonds while not qualifying for the subsidised houses," Sexwale said.

"We are also saying, in areas where we can, let us go high rise instead of going wide on the ground. This means we don’t have to wait for vast lands to be unlocked for development."

The launch was also attended by the Public Works Minister Gwen Mahlangu-Nkabinde, Western Cape Premier Helen Zille and Western Cape Human Settlements MEC Bonginkosi Madikizela.

SAinfo reporter