A New Woodlands family, who cannot fit in a makeshift separate entrance have been split but they are hopeful that they’ll be the recipients of one of 800 houses due to be built in 2022 as part of the Southern Corridor housing development for residents of Kosovo informal settlement and Mitchell’s Plain.
Rashieda Hendricks, 49, and her husband Nazeem Meniers, 53, live at her brother-in-law’s house.
Ms Hendricks has six children – one is married, two live with their father and three, aged between 10 and 26, live with them.
Mr Meniers’s 26-year-old son and his 4-year-old grandchild also live there.
Ms Hendricks appealed for a house at the New Woodlands Ratepayers’ Association meeting at Northwood community hall last Tuesday February 13.
Members of the ratepayers’ association are on the provincial government housing project’s steering committee, to oversee the building of 800 houses to be evenly split between Kosovo informal settlement and Mitchell’s Plain residents, who are on the City of Cape Town’s Housing Demand Database, also known as the housing waiting list.
Residents have until Monday March 5 to submit comment on the rezoning of the property for possible development on the corner of the R300 (Cape Flats Freeway) and New Eisleben Road (Precinct 1); and the Kosovo informal settlement bound by the freeway, Weltevreden Parkway, Philippi Stadium and rail reserve, Philippi Weltevreden Valley (Precinct 2).
Precinct 1 needs to be rezoned to develop the property into residential township, comprising of 800 subsidised housing units. Precinct 2 needs to be rezoned to build 5000 subsidised housing units.
The Plainsman visited Ms Hendricks, who is asthmatic.
She said their home leaks, when it rains and that her husband had to install a toilet.
“The children get the flu a lot,” she said.
Ms Hendricks has been on the housing waiting list since June 30, 1992.
“Al wat ek wil * ê is ’* plek vir my en my familie. Ek gaan gereeld na die Kaapse kantore toe om seker te maak hulle het my besondere,” she said.
Shahien van Nelson, chairman of the association, who is also on the steering committee, reported back to the public meeting that they are concerned about the quality of the housing to be built.
He also said existing infrastructure, like schools, clinics and shops were already battling to meet demand. “What about the demand of more people in the area,” he asked.
However, he said the big advantage to having the development is for people to have houses.
The meeting was held to report back on last year’s activities and to update residents on the housing development.
The project, referred to as the Southern Corridor housing project, focuses on a number of informal settlements along the N2 of which Kosovo is one (“Horns lock over housing,” Plainsman July 19, 2017).
The land identified for the housing development is in New Woodlands, in Ward 75, which forms part of Sub-council 23. According to the department, the project should be completed by 2022 – at a cost of R1.5 billion – if all approvals are in place.
Residents have until Monday March 5 to submit their objections, comments and representations on the proposed subdivision of the plot.
Email to comments_objections.khayemitch@capetown.gov.za or submitd in writing to the office of district manager, at Stocks and Stocks Complex, corner of Ntlazane and Ntlakohlaza streets, in Ilitha Park, Khayelitsha, during office hours.
