Pretoria - Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu says contractors in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality will receive training to make sure that they graduate from being small to established contractors.
“I have your interest at heart and it is my intention to make sure that you graduate from being small contractors to being established ones,” Minister Sisulu told contractors during a meeting at City Hall on Monday.
National government has allocated R4.6 billion over the next three years. This follows a decision taken by Cabinet in April to assist the municipality speed up housing delivery.
Minister Sisulu said the work of contractors who were already working on housing projects in the city would continue.
“They have nothing to fear from the National Government assistance being rolled out by the Housing Development Agency (HDA) in the municipality. We are here to support you and nothing is going to change, you are not going to suffer as a result of these changes,” the Minister assured contractors.
The National African Chamber of Commerce (Nafcoc) has requested that 90% of the work be allocated to local businesses, Small Medium and Micro Enterprises be contracted directly with the HDA and that HDA engage material suppliers on their behalf.
They also asked that they be mentored in order to be able to deliver better houses for the people of Nelson Mandela Municipality, among others.
During a meeting, it was agreed that the National Home Builders Registration Council (NHBRC) would set up an incubator programme in the municipality to provide training for small contractors in all facets of construction from finance to project management.
“The key to our work is partnerships and we all need to focus on our core business to make sure that we deliver faster and better quality houses to show people that we are committed to what we say we want to do,” Minister Sisulu said.
She further reiterated that assistance provided to the municipality was at the request of the former Executive Mayor and the entire council because delivery on human settlements had slowed down over the years.
“Before this, the metro was doing well in terms of housing delivery and it had become the victim of its own success. The aim of the Cabinet endorsed decision was to make sure that the municipality delivered at the rate that they were used to, faster and quality products that would not need rectification in future.” – SAnews.gov.za
