By Nangamso Mabindla
16 October 2007

EIGHT people will become new homeowners tomorrow when Buffalo City Executive Mayor Zintle Peter hands over houses in Potsdam.

The eight houses fall under the R16-million Potsdam Unit P social housing project. Peter will hand them over to the beneficiaries on Wednesday, 17 October as part of her annual Mayoral Imbizo Programme. The City’s communications manager, Darby Gounden, said the event would also show service delivery on the ground.

Funded by the provincial department of housing, local government and traditional affairs, 2 503 low cost houses will be built for families who were moved from various zones in Mdantsane to Potsdam. The provincial department has already granted funding for the first 500 sites.

Gounden said that in 2001, moved by the plight of these families, the municipality undertook the project to deal with shared housing in a bid to ease the housing backlog. Beneficiaries would include people living in informal settlements around Potsdam.

She said the municipality aimed to complete the three-phased project by the end of the 2008/2009 financial year.

In stage one, 500 houses were built in the 2006/2007 financial year. Gounden said that in the current financial year, the City would build 1 000 units and 1 003 units in the 2008/2009 financial year.

"With the issuing of title deeds, the project potentially brings dignity to the shared housing residents of Mdantsane and Potsdam."