MEC Nombulelo has announced interventions on the Nelson Mandela Metro and Buffalo City municipalities by providing hands on support on human settlements responsibilities in the municipalities. In Buffalo City, Duncan Village Redevelopment Initiative status is being escalated to that of a presidential project, internal processes between the department and the municipality have begun to expedite the transfer of the project to the province.
The project is escalated as a presidential pilot project for acceleration.
Duncan Village project has been plagued by irregularities in allocation of houses to beneficiaries who are relocated to Reeston. Illegal occupants have been offered temporary structures to vacate the houses for legal beneficiaries to occupy them before Christmas. Illegal occupants who fail to vacate the houses will be evicted.
The assumption of responsibilities includes programme and project planning aspects including financial injection of the project. Other support will come from the national department. A technical Intervention forum set up by MEC and BCM Mayor is already working to deal with capacity constraints of Buffalo City and a special vehicle to drive this take over for capacity enhancements and establishment of a project office.
In the Nelson Mandela Metro Municipality, the department is providing hands on support to the municipality. The hands on support provided to the municipality is incorporated into cooperative agreement between the department and Nelson Mandela Metro Municipality.
It includes seconding of Human Settlements department regional director, Kosalin Naicker to the Housing, Land and business unit; secondment of municipal support and capacity building expert; support to Zanemvula BNG project; Beneficiary administration and housing subsidy systems that deals with applications and approval of beneficiaries for new homes; Financial Management Expert; internal auditor; 2 technical professionals.
The department will also increase depth of support to other struggling municipalities on human settlements issues reaffirming its view that local government is the front desk of human settlements that needs to be capacitated to discharge its responsibilities more effectively. Other interventions are expected in struggling municipalities throughout the province.
