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Boystown Phase one on the N2 Gateway has been a troubled project in many ways having experienced numerous delays, mostly due to disputes between the groups within the community. Despite these delays, the first 11 houses were handed to approved beneficiaries by the Western Cape Premier Helen Zille and Western Cape MEC Human Settlements BonginkosiMadikizela. The handover took place on Thursday, 24 May.
The HDA’s role in Boystown is implementing agent on behalf of the Western Cape Province – in other words the agency has to make sure the project delivers on its target and within set timeframes.
The HDA inherited a project that had been stalled for some time due to community unrest. So, from the outset, it has been a difficult and challenging project. In order to overcome some of the challenges, the HDA undertook extensive community engagement and a part of this process was to establish a project steering committee, including committee and contractor representation, to ensure information is shared between the stakeholders.
Boystown is an in-situ upgrading project to construct 1392 houses (phase one: 559 houses, phase two:351 houses, phase three: 482). Boystown project source areas are: Boystown (triangle site, phase one, two and three); Qobasi; Newrest; Phillipi TRA; open spaces and section five, while157 houses will also be constructed on the Triangle site.
Many of the project milestones have been reached and phase one of installation of services and infrastructure is near completion. The contractor is using local labour from the Boystown community to build the 412 houses under construction in phase one. Eskom has commenced with bulk infrastructure, while a temporary community facility and law enforcement office have been built. This means the building blocks arein place for a sustainable community.
The HDA took the lessons learned seriously and through meaningful community engagement the project is finally on-track and is set to deliver approximately 70 houses per month.
The HDA would like to thank all stakeholders on the project, particularly the three spheres of government who are all working closely together, and although there is still a lot to be done to complete the project. With the support of the community, this project will be a success.
