Friday’s sod-turning of the City of Cape Town’s R42 million Valhalla Park Housing Project signals the City’s relentless commitment to this development despite various intermittent land invasion attempts and gang-related threats which have stalled the progress of this project.
Construction of the Valhalla Park Housing Development, which will empower the city’s most vulnerable families with 777 subsidized homes, will commence tomorrow, 7 March 2016.
The design and development process is being done in accordance with approved National Human Settlements Development and Engineering Standards by a professional project team comprising all relevant professional disciplines. All the necessary funding and planning approvals are in place.
Following these approvals, the contract for construction of the civil engineering services was recently awarded to Shar Civils cc. The scope of work for this contract includes the construction of internal services for 777 sites and the upgrading of existing services. The contract will employ local labour and sub-contractors.
A democratically representative Project Steering Committee (PSC) is in place and consultants and City officials oversee the project to ensure effective implementation.
The role of a PSC is serving as the link between the project manager and the local community. The PSC is the vehicle for community communication pertaining to aspects of the development.
The PSC consists of Sub council 4 and 5 chairpersons, ward Councillors, elected community representatives and City officials.
“The sod-turning event that took place on Friday signifies a new phase for this land, which has experienced various land invasion attempts. It is the start of a new life for our beneficiaries and bringing dreams to fruition as they become property owners, which can unlock economic opportunities”.
“This development demonstrates the City’s ongoing and relentless commitment to providing housing and economic opportunities for some of the city’s most vulnerable residents. The City will continue to make every effort to ensure that this housing development is completed so that its beneficiaries can have access to improved living conditions”.
“With construction commencing soon, the City is very excited to be contributing towards building better lives for vulnerable residents and we encourage communities to support us in our efforts,” said the City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Human Settlements, Councillor Benedicta van Minnen.
Beneficiaries will be allocated from Valhalla Park as well as from other areas, in accordance with the Housing Allocation Policy.
