By Nangamso Mabindla
30 May 2008

DUNCAN Village and Mdantsane will continue to receive attention from the municipality to redevelop them as places where people can live dignified lives.

In her third annual State of the City address at the East London City Hall on Thursday, 29 May, Executive Mayor Zintle Peter said that the municipality would have funds dedicated to improving the conditions of these townships.

In the next financial year, the City would allocate R133-million to the Duncan Village Redevelopment Initiative and R215-million to Mdantsane.

Talking about the initiative, Peter said: “[It] involves, ultimately, the construction of up to 21 000 housing units together with the related civil and social infrastructure. At today’s subsidy values, the total finance required, excluding the cost of bulk services, is in the region of a billion rand.”

To speed up delivery, the City would commit R50-million from its own funding derived from capital loans. Another R10-million would address water loss in Duncan Village.

“In addition to this commitment by the City, a new facility available to local government known as the Neighbourhood Partnership Development Grant has made available a total of R76-million to support a variety of both hard and soft development projects in Duncan Village,” Peter said.

These developments included the improvement of public transport and community health facilities, social amenities, local economic development and environmental improvement projects.

Turning her attention to Mdantsane, Peter proposed that R91-million be allocated for upgrading and repairing roads. More that R50-million would be loan funding.

“R10-million has been allocated for the improvement of street lighting along the Qumza Highway and Billie Road, while we have set an ambitious target of building almost 6 000 house for the coming year. Another R12-million has been set aside for the upgrading of community facilities.”

She announced that the Mdantsane Urban Renewal Programme would receive R120-million from the European Commission and a further R128-million from the Neighbourhood Development Partnership Grant in 2009.

“The latter amount [is] specifically set aside for the upgrading of the Mdantsane CBD. These substantial injections of cash will have a visible impact on the face of Mdantsane, and will boost the momentum of our efforts to speed up change in the broader city.”