Housing delivery in the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality got a boost with the gazetting of an additional R500-million by National Treasury to speed
up the provision of sustainable human settlements in the city.
The additional funding is aimed at bolstering the work of Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu’s Cabinet-sanctioned intervention team in the municipality and its availability will seriously help ease the shortage of housing in the Eastern Cape, the human settlements department said in a statement on Sunday.
The ministerial intervention team – led by acting executive director for human settlements in Nelson Mandela Bay Mandla Mabuza – had as one of its priorities the stabilisation of the revolving fund, which was a bridging finance mechanism used by the metro to pay contractors while waiting payment from Bisho.
“From now onwards, Nelson Mandela Bay is going to be a construction site that should see the benefits being felt by the citizens of the city. We have managed to stabilise the housing department in the few months we have been there and it’s now all systems go.”