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Housing
when the clouds of economic gloom
hover above our heads with remark-
able obstinacy. It is perhaps fitting
that we remind ourselves of themany
wonderful things currently taking
place in our beautiful country.”
Cosmo City was chosen to launch
the celebration campaign as it is the
most advanced of the department’s
projects and has all the inclusive
housing elements.
“Cosmo City is representative of
what human settlements should be,”
said Sisulu. Cosmo City is one of the
initiatives that the Department of
Human Settlements has undertaken
since 2004. Other key projects include
the N2 Gateway housing project in
Cape Town and Cornubia in Durban.
The campaign celebrates an
achievement which has seen more
than 20 million people benefitting
fromgovernment housing. The recent
launch held at the Cosmo City Multi-
purpose Complex coincided with the
10
th
anniversary of the development.
Cosmo City has 12 500 residential
units including fully bonded, par-
tially and fully subsidised units and
social housing and is home to 70 000
people. A decade down the line, the
community of Cosmo City has its own
schools, clinic, shoppingmall, library
and a fire station currently under
construction and due for comple-
tion later this year. The Minister’s
entourage included Gauteng MEC of
Human Settlments, Paul Mashatile,
the Basil Read team, her advisors, the
newly appointed head of the Social
Housing Regulatory Authority, Rory
Gallocher, Chairman of the National
Home Builders Registration Council,
Abbey Chikane, First National Bank’s
developer finance and building loans
specialist, Marinda Barnard and her
counterpart on end user finance,
Francois Strydom, the formidable
Calgro team, Ben Pierre Malherbe
and Derek Steyn, as well as provincial
stakeholders.
The Basil Read team hosted the
Minister and was keen to show her
all the work that has been achieved
in order to provide sustainable, fully
subsidised housing at Malibongwe
Ridge and Cosmo City. The innovative
residential units at Malibongwe Ridge
all have additional units/rooms and
facilities. This provides beneficiaries
with an additional source of income,
as these rooms can be rented to Zan-
dspruit informal settlement dwellers.
Originally the fully subsidised
units were developed to house all
the Zandspruit residents. But those
who do not qualify for free subsidised
housing still have the opportunity
to live in decent, affordable hous-
ing. This is one of the most exciting
housing developments; it provides
low income earners with not only
a free house, but the additional
income makes them less financially
dependent on government. All new
development projects should encom-
pass some element of sustainability
and create financial streams for ben-
eficiaries. Most housing beneficiaries
are apprehensive about using their
newasset to access finance and grow
their wealth base.
In the past, Absa’s housing gurus,
Dr Gert Dry and Joe Kondos, had a
number of ideas on how fully subsi-
dised units could be developed. The
Basil Read innovationwas first moot-
ed over eight years ago by Kondos.
He suggested double storey units
that would provide the beneficiary
with a house on the lower level and
tenants living in the self-contained
upper level. This would provide ben-
eficiarieswith an extra income aswell
as relieve the demand for housing.
The 4,3 million housing oppor-
tunities’ campaign, which has pro-
vided homes for over 20 million
people, includes 2,8million RDP fully
subsidised units; 986 000 serviced
sites; 360 000 Enhanced Extended
Discount Benefit Scheme units,
68 640 Community Residential Units,
121 000 social housing units and 6 000
Finance Linked Individual Subsidy
Programme homes.
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OPPORTUNITIES
May 2016