Yesterday, Western Cape Minister of Infrastructure, Tertuis Simmers, handed over eight housing units to beneficiaries of the Ebenhaezer Housing Project in Plettenberg Bay, Bitou.
As part of the Ebenhaezer Housing Project, a total of 179 sites are being developed, of which Phase 1 includes 154 Breaking New Ground (BNG) units, 25 First Home Finance (FHF) units, and 25 serviced sites. Phases 2 and 3 will add a further 1 333 BNG units, 25 FHF units, and 75 serviced sites.
In alignment with the Western Cape Government’s efforts to promote sustainable energy, all 154 BNG units in Phase 1 have been fitted with 150-litre solar geysers.
To date, over R45 million has been spent on the construction of Phase 1, and the handover of all BNG units in this phase is expected to be completed by the end of October 2024. Phases 2 and 3 are scheduled for completion by March 2028.
Additionally, the project is contributing to local job creation through the implementation of a Small, Medium, and Micro Enterprises (SMME) development programme in Phase 1, which aims to support small businesses in upgrading their grading and further stimulating economic growth in the area. This initiative highlights the Western Cape Government’s commitment to addressing housing needs, promoting sustainability, and creating job opportunities in the Western Cape.
Minister Simmers said, “We committed to delivering more housing opportunities to the people of Ebenhaezer, and we have delivered. I am very proud of the Western Cape Government, my department and the stakeholders we work with for delivering these housing opportunities to the community. Having a decent home to live in provides the safety and dignity that all people of the Western Cape deserve.”
charms
Fun South African Fact: South Africa is home to a variety of landscapes and biomes, including deserts, wetlands, bushveld, grasslands, mountains and subtropical forests.
Waylay Dave
The Man who could only Drink Milk
I know an old man who had lived a life full of adventure, but his health started to catch up with him. He\’d run the Boston Marathon, was an avid surfer, and climbed Everest, but he\’d started to have abdominal pains around his 85th birthday and went to see a doctor. Sadly, he ultimately was diagnosed with a rare degenerative liver disease that slowly made him allergic to everything he ate.
He kept copious notes, and as an avid gastronomist slowly grew to despair as everything he\’d spent his life enjoying became something he could no longer eat. Alcohol went first, then mushrooms, then bread, then root vegetables, then coffee, one at a time he had to remove them from his diet. The doctor was clear: if he kept eating something his liver rejected the autoimmune response would be quick and severe, and would lead to a painful death. Little by little, everything was taken away as an option, until the only thing that remained was milk.
In some ways, this actually made life easier, because the mental strain of remembering what he could and couldn\’t eat was gone, but then so was the joy in variety. But he took it in stride, and got his own cow and took classes from a farmer to learn everything he could about the only thing that could give him sustenance. And even within milk, he could still have yogurt, butter, cream, some cheeses, and other milk-derived products he hadn\’t fully rejected yet, so it wasn\’t all bad. But then one day a few months later he felt the pain again, and he knew cow\’s milk was no longer an option.
Lacking other options, he tried goat\’s milk, and he was delighted that it worked! The protein structure is just different enough that his body still tolerated it. That bought him another month. And that\’s when we came up with a wonderful plan to go on one last grand adventure around the world. If he could get one month of life out of the milk of every mammal, he\’d actually have a few more years to enjoy life to the fullest and see the world in all its beauty. Each month, we\’d pick a place with a new mammal, and he would immerse himself fully with the locals, learn all the ways to prepare the milk, and just enjoy the hand he had been dealt as much as he could.
We milked sheep in New Zealand. Camels in Egypt. Zebras in South Africa. Giant bats in Indonesia. Do you know how many Peruvian cuy you need to milk to get a single glass? I do. Even as his health slowly faded, he stayed cheerful, and I felt lucky to join him on the adventure of a lifetime. That brings us to today when he got to the very end of his spreadsheet, and declared that he was now allergic to every mammal. He\’d enjoyed his journey, but his time had come to an end, for there was nothing left to milk.
To which I said nonsense, I bet we can milk a few thousand karma out of this post.