Western Cape government, handed out more than 500 land sites to Kanana residents in Nkqubela, Robertson on Monday.
At the handover ceremony, Western Cape Human Settlements MEC, Bonginkosi Madikizela said:
“Everyone who was dispossessed of their land must get their land back. There should be no questions [about] whether people should own the land or not.”
“We must create an environment so that people who cannot afford a house, can have a foot in the door by providing infrastructure and by transferring land in the form of a site so they can incrementally build their own homes,” Madikizela added.
The Nkqubela project is part of the department’s Upgrading of Informal Settlements Programme (UISP) aimed at improving the living conditions of people in informal settlements.
Beneficiaries of the programme are people who earn slightly above R3 500 and therefore do not qualify for a full Breaking New Ground (BNG) housing subsidy.
Moreover, they also earn too little to qualify for a bond, according to the department.
To kick-start the project, the provincial Department of Human Settlements pumped R4.5m into the construction of a reservoir in Nkqubela, within the Langeberg Municipal District.
A total of 505 serviced sites was handed over to the Residents.
More: News24