Construction World

CONSTRUCTION WORLD

SEPTEMBER

2015

PROJECTS AND CONTRACTS

Savanna City is a development of Basil

Read, which manages a 50% interest,

and the Housing Impact Fund of South

Africa (HIFSA), a R9-billion fund formed by Old

Mutual, with support from the DBSA, the Govern-

ment Employees Pension Fund and the Eskom

Pension and Provident Fund.

Savanna City employs numerous contrac-

tors, which in turn employ subcontractors.

To support the growth of these small businesses,

Savanna City Developments created a budget for

skills development, outside Basil Read’s budget

possibilities for the same purpose, co-operating

with CETA (Construction Education and Training

Authority). Savanna City aims to equip these small

businesses with effectivemanagement principles,

enabling them to manage and run a business.

To date 15 small and medium enterprises has

benefitted from this programme, which greatly

increased their ability to compete in the market.

In the development of the Savanna City

concept, most government departments have a

part to play. Davina Piek, development director

of Basil, explains: “Not all are funding partners,

but most are. In the nature of things, it took a

long time to resolve the issues around payment

for bulk services before we broke ground. The

Department of Human Settlements, National

Treasury and Gauteng Province all helped to

get us to the point of breaking ground. Govern-

ment financed the Fully Subsidised Housing and

assisted with bulk and link funding.”

Savanna City will play another important role

in the growth of the Gauteng economy. Once

completed, it will provide a stable labour pool

for Midvaal, Johannesburg and surrounding

areas. The project has pushed boundaries in

many areas. For the first couple of years this

unique development will contribute to Midvaal

municipality by means of an urban management

grant of up to R35-million. “I have never seen

anything like it in any project anywhere,” says

A MEGA CITY IN THE MAKING

A previously empty piece of land, 20 kilometres south of

Johannesburg, is being turned into a mega city, named Savanna

City. This 1 462 hectare property will contain over 18 000 housing

units, retail outlets, schools, clinics, crèches, churches and other

community provisions. It will all be linked by some 127 kilometres of

roads. Parks, sports fields, gardens and over 30 000 trees will make it

a pleasant place in which to live.

Piek. “We budget for it annually. Midvaal is not a

big municipality and the money is used to beef

up staff and equipment”.

By the time Savanna City is completed it will

have doubled the size of Midvaal. Midvaal have

responded by employing a full-time project

manager, something that has proven very useful.

”The urban management plan shows the roll-out

of houses, the potential income from rates, taxes

and municipal services, as well as the potential

cost related to additional staff, equipment, vehi-

cles and operational costs.“It is complicated,” says

Piek, “but the co-operation between the people

on all these bodies is really excellent. The way

we are working together has made it possible to

move the project forward strongly.