By Nangamso Mabindla
24 November 2004

ABOUT 60 Scenery Park residents are set to become first-time home-owners, thanks to a joint housing project by Buffalo City and the provincial Department of Local Government.

Some 34 houses in the East London township are presently nearing completion, built with aid from the Department of Local Government and housing subsidies provided by the City to households earning less than R3 500 a month.

According to Ward 31 councilor Vuyani Holiday, the families bought sites from other residents, but struggled to get them registered in their names. They were forced to live in shacks for many years while their application forms were being processed.

"After the application forms were approved we decided, with the provincial department, to build these houses. Early next year some of them will move from the shacks to their new houses," said Holiday.

While only about half of the houses were close to completion, Holliday was not perturbed: "We're not in a rush because we want to build quality houses. In fact, inspectors from the Department are impressed with the quality of these houses."

An elated Ntuthuzelo Moya, one of the beneficiaries, said he was happy he would finally own a house he could call his own. "I've been waiting for this for at least 10 years," he said, adding he was thankful to both tiers of government for making his dream a reality. "Now I'll move from my shack to a real house."

Despite these developments, Holiday said there was still a lot of work to be done for the residents of Phase 3 in Scenery Park.

"We have a R6-million programme with the Provincial Government to bring shelter to Phase 3 residents," he said.

The 1 000 families in the area need to register with the Municipality in order to be part of the project.

"With these kinds of projects we want to show that we're determined to meet targets set by the Government and give our people proper houses," he said.