Whatshot
KwaDukuza Mayor Ricardo Mthembu drives the Etete Housing project
KwaDukuza Mayor Ricardo Mthembu drives the Etete Housing project
"The long wait is over". The community of ETete will enjoy one of its major human settlement projects that we as government, through the integrated planning system have worked so hard to achieve"
The Provincial government has vowed to accelerate the construction of 1500 houses.
This massive roll out follows a bold undertaking by the KZN MEC for Human Settlements, Ravi Pillay on Tuesday were he promised to accelerate land expropriation processes which were preventing the development.
The KZN MEC for Corporate Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) on Tuesday signed the last expropriation papers of nine outstanding sites out of 30 that were earmarked for development.
ETete has been recently hit by a service delivery protest which led to the unfortunate blockage of the provincial road, the R102 and railway lines - with people vandalizing government's facilities asking for descent housing infrastructure and sanitation.
Government findings into the root cause of the unrest, was poor communication between residents and the municipality. The community was not receiving efficient feedback about the housing developments which were administritively at their final stage.
Pillay together with the Mayor have since deployed a steering committee that will report about government developments there.
"The community has been waiting for this project for too long. While, we deplore and condemn unlawful protests, aggressive disruptions can never be a solution to our problems. We have however come to terms with such frustrations and we concede to the fact that we had not put in place a functional communication platform".
"It must also be noted that this community has also enjoyed housing delivery since 1994. The current project is on phase 4 of development and three other phases have been completed" said Mthembu. "I'm happy that we have worked with the community in finding an amicable solution".
Amongst other projects that will be developed is the Etete Bus Route, which the contractor will be on site by the 26th of August 2013, Road calming measures contractors will be on site from the 19th of August 2013. The recently completed community hall and sports field will be officially handed over before the 16th of September 2013.
"We need to strengthen communication accross all project committees based at ward level to ensure that our communities are aware of our progress" he concluded.