By Zukile Majova
President Cyril Ramaphosa is making a last minute push to secure his second term with a R1-billion housing project in the Northern Cape.
The Northern Cape is traditionally one of the ANC’s stronghold provinces, but over the years, opposition parties have scraped 10% of the ANC share of the provincial vote.
The party won the province by 58.23% in the 2019 elections compared to 68.75% at the height of its popularity in 2004.
On Thursday, Ramaphosa is taking his campaign to Kimberly to launch the project which the Presidency said “will deliver more than 4,000 housing units during the life of the venture”.
Ramaphosa has promised voters numerous water reticulation projects in Limpopo, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape, where rural communities have complained about poor water quality.
Municipalities in the provinces have also failed to supply clean drinking water to township and rural communities.
The housing project in the Northern Cape is expected to produce 4,168 houses, with 2,500 scheduled for delivery within the first 12 months.
“During the launch, the president will perform a sod-turning ceremony at a site secured by the Department of Human Settlements.
“This location will host fully subsidised houses and diverse housing opportunities, including First Home Finance and social housing,” the Presidency said in a statement.
To fund the project, the Northern Cape provincial government has secured a “R600-million loan from the Development Bank of Southern Africa to supplement its baseline grant allocation for housing”.
The province is battling to get rid of 162 informal settlements which have pushed the housing backlog to over 80,000 units.
The government said some “18,000 serviced stands across the province are prepared for the construction of housing structures”.
Sol Plaatje Municipality (Kimberly) spokesperson Thabo Mothibi told the media that the Treasury has given the municipality some R2.5-billion to fund water reticulation projects that have troubled the town for five years.
Pictured above: Cyril Ramaphosa.
Image source: X
