1 Apr 2019

Minister Lindiwe Zulu joins the Department Of Human Settlement for the launch and handover ceremony of the People’s Housing Project

Minister of Small Business Development, Ms Lindiwe Zulu will be joining the Department of Human Settlement for the official launch and the handover of houses built through the Walmer Enhanced People’s Housing Project (PHP) in Port Elizabeth on the 2nd of April 2019.

The residents of Walmer in Port Elizabeth are amongst the first to demonstrate real transformation and inclusion of communities in the mainstream economy through their participation in the building of their own houses.  “We have been advocating for sector focused co-operatives and these Housing Co-operatives are proof that this model can directly empower our people socially and economically” so said Zulu.

DSBD has been very instrumental in running workshops within the community to encourage skilled members of the community to establish co-operatives in line with their skills in building houses. After these training workshops, members who showed interest were linked to the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC) to register their co-operatives. Further, these co-operatives were provided with governance and bookkeeping training through a partnership with a German NGO – DGRV.

These primary co-operatives are ready to register a Secondary Co-operative in order to share construction infrastructure as well as equipment and machinery. An application for funding has been considered by the department and the infrastructure will be disbursed in due course. These houses are built by community members who made a conscious decision to register co-operatives in order to benefit from government contracts on human settlement. Over and above the revenue to be earned by these co-operatives, it is envisaged that 63 people will be employed over the period of building over 2000 housing units.

This is a partnership with the Department of Human Settlement which budgeted a total of R261 million to respond to lack of services from an informal settlement which is upgraded through the PHP. The informal settlement consists of two thousand two hundred and nine (2209) sites.

Co-operatives are legal entities formed by people with a common objective and create opportunities for members to provide for themselves whilst sustaining their communities.

“We are particularly proud of this project because of skills transfer, jobs created whilst members of these Housing Co-operatives remained owners of the means of production, and that’s how you transform society, concluded Zulu.

Enquiries:
Noko Manyelo - Spokesperson
Cell: 060 972 5221