The North West Human Settlements Department has pledged to construct 97 Military Veterans’ Housing projects for the province’s war veterans. The project, which is set to begin in a few months, was unveiled during a recent meeting of the Military Veterans Housing Programme Project Steering Committee in Mahikeng. The purpose of the meeting was to update the province’s progress in executing the program.
According to Orapeleng Tabile, the Provincial Coordinator for the Military Veterans Housing Programme evaluation of the project has been carried out. This process he said had many difficulties influenced by several impediments, including the lack of serviced stands on which authorized recipients should build houses and geotechnical assessment studies for the places or villages where house building should occur.
Tabile further mentioned that the agency was able to expedite the selection of a contractor in the Moses Kotane Local Municipality, where six dwellings will be built for authorized recipients. He explained that appointing a contractor for Ganyesa and Lethabong in Rustenburg is also well underway.
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Addressing Military Veterans’ Housing Needs
Currently, the province has zero house delivery for war veterans, and municipalities’ allocation of stands, including bulk infrastructure and condition of preparation, are among the major issues faced since 2020. This was due to the COVID-19 epidemic as well as other administrative issues. In his presentation, Jacky Mamabolo, Deputy Director of the People’s Housing Project, and military veterans from the national Department of Human Settlements raised to worry about the department’s poor performance over the last two years.
Mamabolo asked the province to prioritize military veterans’ initiatives in the coming fiscal year. He stated that the department has chosen such projects as one of the priority projects that may be performed right now as part of the recovery plan for the fiscal year 2022/2023. He also directed the provincial administration to guarantee that projects that satisfy the standards and specifications of the military housing project are implemented. This will prevent initiatives that are not yet ready for execution from being included in the business plan and, as a result, portray a poor picture when such projects are unable to begin. As a result, service delivery would suffer since set objectives would not be fulfilled.
Allocation of the housing units
The department is collaborating closely with the Department of Military Veterans on a strategy to communicate with military veterans who qualify for housing to avoid miscommunication and a lack of feedback from the department and keep them up to date on housing projects developments.
Meanwhile, the Departments of Human Settlements and Military Veterans have issued warnings to anybody impersonating a military veteran and asking for housing in towns. The agencies have also agreed that the Military Veterans Department will keep a list of eligible beneficiaries.
