30% allocation to woman contractors

The department is calling upon all women construction companies to participate in the human Settlements Development in the province. It is important that during the 60^th anniversary of the adoption of the women’s charter and 20 Years of Freedom that the department allocates 30% of its work to women owned companies.

Annually, the department is allocated a conditional grant amounting to over a billion rands to build houses, social amenities, greening, install services and land acquisition for human settlements development. The department will build over 75 000 housing units, 18 multi-purpose community centres during between 2014 to 2019.

Of these 25 000 housing units will be in rural areas of OR Tambo, Alfred Nzo and Joe Gqabi areas.

We will also use the emerging contractor development program support for women emerging contractors and help them graduate into fully fledged contractors capable of implementing big projects.

Last year, the department trained over 100 women volunteers in women’s built programme in Port St Johns where they built 57 homes for destitute families. This year, the department will facilitate the implementation of the EPWP programme in generating 17 000 job opportunities; supporting 100 emerging contractors towards sustainable Business enterprises and 80 projects will be aligned towards Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) principles.

In terms of the current implementation strategy for building 1956 houses for women beneficiaries by female contractors, the department is already utilising female contractors to build houses in all the districts of the Province. Given the expanded mandate and instruments such as FLISP the department is encouraging women private developers to tap into the opportunities for meaningful partnerships. These initiatives are aimed at empowering women to fully participate in the mainstream economy.

Enquiries:
Lwandile Sicwetsha
Cell: 071 6711770