Cape Town - In a quest to improve the livelihoods of people living in informal settlements in the Metro, the City of Cape Town plans to inject about R18.3 million.
Their strategic plans include various Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) prioritising the installations of wi-fi, waste removal, infrastructure repairs and others by June.
Eddie Andrews, Mayco member for spatial planning and environment, said this would change the lives of thousands living in informal settlements.
“The project aims to improve the livelihood of up to 30 000 households in informal settlements with a variety of interventions. Various interventions are defined and rolled out to the relevant informal settlements,” he said.
“The work is closely linked to the Community-Based Planning initiative with the guidance and support of the City Support Programme of National Treasury.”
He said they aim to implement some of the projects, reaching about 15% of the total number of the settlements by the end of June as part of phase one.
Phase two is expected to commence in the next financial year. Benefiting settlements include Khayelitsha, Gugulethu, Nyanga, Kuils River, Mfuleni, Philippi, Blouberg and Milnerton.
Andrews said a number of households would be enumerated and settlements have been profiled.
- 15 Early Childhood Development Centre’s will be repaired;
- 15 small public spaces will be created;
- Machinery for one block yard will be purchased;
- One large food garden will be developed;
- Service checks of water taps and communal toilets in areas with 20 000 households;
- Approximately 300 wi-fi hotspots to be installed by the end of June 2023;
- Organic waste extraction will be scaled from currently 11 tons per month to approximately 100 tons per month by June 2023;
- Urban management such as area cleaning and solid waste removal from public spaces and dumping hotspots in a number of settlements;
- After school and youth work in five schools
- Community safety initiatives;
While those in the settlements said these were good plans, they remain sceptical that this could be “one of many empty promises”.
Bulelani Qonali, one of the settlement’s leaders, said: “The City always comes with good ideas that tend to fail because they do not involve community structures, and a lot of malfunctions happen during the implementation process resulting in a dismal failure.
“Although the settlement's basic needs remain an adequate supply of water, electricity and sanitation, it would be great to successfully install wi-fi and proper maintenance of ECD’s.
“These are projects that are often initiated by local structures, and governmental involvement would be great.”
Another resident, Bulelwa Mtshiki, said it is worrying that the City prides itself on servicing the informal settlements when it should be focusing on providing permanent solutions, such as building houses.
“These projects are only short-lived, and people get left with a story to tell because the infrastructure isn’t ideal and the City fails to monitor them,” she said.
The City has stated this forms part of their continuous efforts to improve living conditions and that the progress is often halted by the eruption of new settlements.
This sees the increasing demand for services and diversion of funds.
“The City continues to deliver in informal settlements despite the immense challenges we are facing,” said the City.
“The unprecedented large-scale unlawful occupations created over the Covid-19 national lockdown period and thereafter led to the creation of 186 new informal settlements between March 2020 to December 2021.
“The City could need about 500 hectares of land for these new occupants, identified to be at risk due to their physical location.”