Minister of Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation Lindiwe Sisulu, along with the Western Cape Minister of Human Settlements Tertuis Simmers, on Wednesday handed over keys to residents of the brand-new Glenhaven units, in Bellville, in the Western Cape. 

This handover forms part of the Anchorage Project and the social housing units, worth R200-million, are part of the first phase of social housing consisting of 416 apartments arranged in 4-storey walk-ups, in five buildings. To date, 209 of the completed 416 units are occupied. The second phase consists of a single four-storey building of 96 units.

Features of the Anchorage project include centralised water heating that helps save electricity, a smart metering application for purchasing prepaid utilities, access to fibre and television over fibre, a park with mini-basketball courts and a children’s play area.

Eight projects, in total, have been approved for implementation and all of them are expected to deliver close to 3 000 units.

Sisulu congratulated the Western Cape for having the largest number of social housing projects in the country.

“These spaces offer a safe environment for all our people and so I would like to encourage the beneficiaries of this place to fully enjoy the space and to take care of it. This project clearly demonstrates that when the different spheres of government work together it bears fruit as is evident in this development,” she said.

Simmers said the Western Cape government had placed a renewed and continued focus on accelerating opportunities within the affordable housing market.

“Projects such as these are important for realising the dignity of our residents,” he said.

Sisulu said the residents were from various age groups, backgrounds, creeds, cultures, sexual orientations and languages.

“This is exactly what we want to see happening in our societies, as it is assists in breaking down Apartheid spatial planning,” she said.