Multi-Million Rand Housing Project at a Standstill for Weeks

The unfinished social housing stands next to the Bridge City shopping center in KwaMashu, north of Durban. The Social Housing Regulatory Authority says just under R200-million has already been spent on the project.

• The Bridge City Housing development was approved in 2019 but due to a number of delays and financial setbacks, the project remains largely incomplete.
• The development is meant to provide hundreds of much-needed affordable housing units in KwaMashu, Durban.
• While phase one of the project is yet to be completed, the Social Housing Regulatory Authority says just under R200-million has already been spent on the project.
• The DA’s spokesperson for housing in eThekwini is calling on the provincial government to intervene.

A multi-million-rand development meant to provide hundreds of much-needed affordable housing units in KwaMashu, Durban, remains incomplete years after construction started on the project.

Residents like Samkelisiwe Mthembu who live five minutes from the development say they’ve been waiting for years to apply for a unit at the social housing project.

Mthembu and her three children live in a three-room house with 11 other relatives. She said she earns between R3,500 to R4,000 per month and her children’s schools are also nearby the development. While she cannot afford most of the private rental fees, she is hoping that the project will finally provide her and other low-income earners an opportunity to have their own place to live.

Now the DA’s spokesperson for housing in eThekwini is calling on the provincial government to intervene and for the suspicious delays in the project to be investigated.

Just under R200-million has been spent on the project so far despite that the first phase of the development is yet to be completed. This first phase of 237 units was supposed to be completed at the end of July 2024, the second of 201 units at the end of November 2024, and phase three with an additional 346 units at the end February 2025.

The Bridge City Housing development was approved in 2019 and was expected to start in 2020 and be completed by December 2022. According to a news report, the original developers withdrew allegedly due to threats by local construction mafia.

The project was then taken over by the property development company, Instratin, through a grant agreement signed between the Social Housing Regulatory Authority, the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Human Settlements, and Bridge City Towers (Pty) Ltd. The Social Housing Regulatory Authority provided grant funding while Instratin and Bridge City Towers secured commercial funding from ABSA and the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA).

Barely a few months later, the site appeared to be abandoned yet again, and workers complained that they had not been paid for months.

Instratin has since indicated that financial complications and funding being withdrawn by the DBSA had further impacted the company’s ability to continue the project.

In October, the DA’s spokesperson for housing in eThekwini, Zamani Khuzwayo, said their members struggled to get answers about the site and decided to have an oversight visit.

Khuzwayo said, “It would seem they are in no rush to finish the development as there were just over 20 workers on site when we visited. Some of the equipment is piling up and gathering rust at the site and employees have not been paid for months.”

Khuzwayo added that the party will be calling for the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Human Settlements to intervene to ensure that the development is completed speedily. “It has become a norm for development projects to be delayed by officials and politicians who are looking to line their own pockets. At the receiving end are ratepayers who need housing,” he said.

Lebogang Seperepere of the DBSA said the bank initially withdrew “due to the clients non-compliance with predetermined conditions”. The DBSA’s involvement was contingent on these conditions, he said.

On 23 January the DBSA confirmed that it was now working with the developer to help the company meet the key conditions. “We are working with all stakeholders to facilitate the project’s successful completion,” Seperepere told GroundUp.

When GroundUp visited the site, there were exposed rusty steel in piles outside the unfinished six-storey concrete structures.

Mduduzi Ncalane, spokesperson for eThekwini municipality, explained that the municipality’s role on the project was limited to providing a letter of support in line with its social housing principles.

Spokesperson for the Social Housing Regulatory Authority, Lesego Diale, said that the contractor has since been on site but acknowledged that there has been very little progress and that “production has slowed down”.

Diale said that just under R200-million of the grant agreement has already been spent on the project to date.

“At the moment the completion dates are unknown until construction activities resume,” said Diale.

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