The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality has secured R211 million to take services to approximately 3 000 informal homes over the next financial year.
This will see around 12 000 mostly indigent residents receiving water and sanitation services straight to the home, for the first time.
Furthermore, the Metro will surface all surrounding gravel roads and install street lighting.
We are working all out to uplift the lives of our poorest residents, and we are bringing these changes for people like the mamas and oumas who have for years hauled buckets of water over large distances to simply have water to cook and clean, because previous governments had left them behind. Soon these residents will be able to turn on a tap in their very own homes.
The young fathers who have faced dangers of crime and gangs
while trying to access distant toilets late at night, will now safely be able to access sanitation services on their own property.
The decision, which will see the Metro spend approximately R70 000 per erf, is motivated by our vision to turn Nelson Mandela Bay into one city, with one future for all residents.
While we work to ensure that these families do also move on into formal housing as soon as we can deliver houses, for now the full scope of services and infrastructure works towards transforming these townships into a more dignified living place. Formal housing is of course our ultimate goal to more and more people, but we cannot allow informal residents to remain neglected without services.
Some of the focus areas for this programme over the next year and beyond include Malabar, Nkata/Seyesi, Bethelsdorp, Kleinskool, Motherwell NU 29 and Rocklands.
This new NMB government is not just building houses, we are building integrated, safe and accessible communities, and improving the informal living environments as best we can.
Gone are the days of delivering a project for the sake of ticking a box or scoring a deal.
Human Settlements MMC, Cllr Nqaba Bhanga, has already transformed the previously broken Human Settlements Directorate, and it is now a delivery engine, not a patronage vehicle. Under Cllr Bhanga, this is now an operation that is taking Nelson Mandela Bay forward as was seen two weeks ago when Cllr Bhanga announced that over 1900 newly-audited title deeds were ready to be handed out to rightful homeowners.
In our forward-thinking and caring city, we want, increasingly, every single resident to live in a community under improvement, where the changes can make them proud to live there.
With a vision that prompts action, our City is starting to reach for the stars. We are proud of the progress we have announced today, with 12 000 more residents soon to access the services they deserve.
Issued by Nelson Mandela Bay Metro
