On Friday, 12 August 2011, officials from the Northern Cape Department of Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs and the Sol Plaatje Municipality visited the N2 Gateway project. The purpose of the visit was for the HDA to share lessons learnt from a mega housing integrated development project.
The day started with a presentation by BoscoKhoza, HDA Operations Manager for the N2 Gateway, who provided a background to the development. Grey skies and rain did not in any way dampen the tour that followed to the various areas that make up the N2 Gateway project.
The first stop was Joe Slovo Park, where Lenny Barnes, Thabiso Mfeya, Simon Mothelesi and Tebogo Bonokwane were shown the many challenges this social housing project carried and, once again, the stark reality of illegal electricity connections and vandalism was brought to the fore.
The next stop was the New Rest PHP project, followed by a tripto Boys Town. A tasty lunch was served on the bus en route to the TRA5 project, where the quality of the temporary homes was praised.The last leg of the journey included the viewing of the Delft 7-9 and Delft Symphony sites.
Unfortunately, due to time constraints a debriefing session could not be held, but the officials were all positive and complimentary about the HDA's achievements, especially in overcoming the many challenges of this project.
