Kathrada Park to get houses

It appears the construction of the planned 172 houses in Newclare, Johannesburg will begin soon.

On Wednesday, Gauteng Human Settlements MEC Jacob Mamabolo met the leadership of the Kathrada Park Informal Settlement near Newclare following violent protests over housing on Monday.

But not all residents are happy about the arrangements that were made in this meeting as Siphamandla Ndzula, a community leader says: “We are happy that the 172 stands will be completed but we are not happy about the eviction of the invaders.

“We were evicted forcefully when we were occupying illegal land but these people are not.”

He said this after some residents took over a housing project that was built previous to this one.

A protester was shot dead allegedly by a security guard at the Newclare Train Station during the protest.

The recent protest has forced officials to speed-up the process of building houses in the area.

Construction of the planned 172 houses was supposed to have started in July.

MEC Jacob Mamabolo held meetings with contractors and consultants involved in project and expressed concerns over the delays.

It was agreed that the project must resume with immediate effect, as all the paperwork has been finalised.

The contractor is expected to go back to the site today to start preparing for construction.

“We will continue to protest for the people that was arrested on Monday and for the people to be evicted,” says Ndzula.

The contractor that is assigned to the 172 stands visited the site early today.

The kick off of the project is set for October 15.

There was a deadline set for the completion of 55 houses on December 15.

Residents are hopeful that this time around the project would be completed.