A multimillion-rand housing project is set to benefit thousands of Soul City residents in Newcastle.
The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Human Settlement initiative aims to house informal residents in Ward 31 of Newcastle Local Municipality.
According to a national news report, the project will formalise the densely populated Soul City informal settlement by delivering approximately 2000 units upon completion.
Read original article here: Thousands of Soul City residents to get homes
In 2020, the department approved R2.7 million to acquire the land of privately owned properties in order to develop the project’s other phases.
Since then, nearly 80 hectares of land have been purchased for housing development.
The project was officially launched last Saturday and is expected to boost the region’s economy by providing over 1000 job opportunities to locals.
Local suppliers will supply construction materials worth more than R50 million.
During the launch, KZN Premier, Nomusa Dube-Ncube, expressed her gratitude that the housing project was getting off the ground.
“We are humbled here because the people in this area live in informal settlements.”
She continued: “The government made the decision to purchase land. It was difficult because the land was privately owned, and the government had previously been unable to build houses for people because the land was privately owned. We were able to negotiate with a number of owners and landlords to sell the land to us, and now we have been able to get it with 2000 sites where the houses will be built, which is called Soul City,” she explained.
Dube-Ncube stated that they hoped the project will give training opportunities to local residents.
“We spoke with Corobrick and agreed that they would assist people and demonstrate how the bricks are made. We want to buy directly from the people who make these bricks because we are building houses. We strive to use high-quality materials.”
She further encouraged members of the community to get involved in the project.
“Since we are here, there are other areas that belong to traditional leaders and we will be building there too and when we do, what we ask for from our communities is for us to join hands and work together in creating job opportunities. It cannot have more 6500 houses being built without a single local constructor present during the process. We’ve trained young people like civil engineers to join us and make their own contributions so that they can go and create their own projects,” she explained.
“We are going to be starting the second registration of all the beneficiaries because before we build, a house must have the number and the name of the person who will occupy the house. That is why I announced that we want people to be in their own homes by Christmas. That is the commitment I have made,” Dube-Ncube stated.
She further urged residents’ not to sell or rent out their homes to foreign nationals because these were built for them, not for renting out.’
She also encouraged them to communicate if they needed seed funding for business opportunities or employment, and to keep opportunities for locals.
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