Cape Town – Residents in Lavender Hill, Lotus River and Ocean View are set to benefit from a R30 million boost for the City of Cape Town’s staircase upgrade programme.
Mayco Member for Human Settlements, Carl Pophaim, who made the announcement today, 16 November 2023, said that currently, the Human Settlements Directorate has a total priority investment in public housing maintenance and repairs of more than R1.2 billion over the next three years.
Since 2018, approximately R200 million has been spent on staircase upgrades. It includes the repair and replacement of more than 1 300 priority staircases.
Work has been done in public housing flats across the metro, including Hangberg, Atlantis, Hanover Park, Manenberg, Lavender Hill and Steenberg, Scottsdene, Macassar, Lwandle, Avonwood, Leonsdale, Adriaanse, Clarke’s Estate, Ravensmead, Heideveld and Parkwood, among others.
“This R30 million that we have unlocked for the staircase programme is an absolute game-changer for the public housing units in Lavender Hill, Lotus River and Ocean View.
“I am overjoyed to have witnessed the start of this work in Lavender Hill with the commencement of the new contract and look forward to checking on the progress again soon,” said Pophaim.
“Due to the big demand and large volume of rental stock that the City manages, we focus on emergency and critical work across rental stock in the metro.
“Looking at staircases, the R30 million boost for rental stock in our area south will go towards upgrading of 30 public housing buildings which comprise 70 staircases in total.”
Work will be carried out until 30 June 2024.
“The City is one of the biggest landlords in the country and an estimated 160 000 people currently benefit from the affordable rental public housing units operated by the City.
“There are many challenges in public housing but I am committed to stepping up our efforts to unlock additional funding such as this R30 million boost and to find new ways of addressing the most urgent priorities within the finite resources that we have,” Pophaim said.
“The safety of our tenants is a priority and I would like to thank our residents who are temporarily inconvenienced while this essential work is under way.”
Priority given to emergency repairs
- Due to the large volume of service requests, it is the City’s priority to attend to the most urgent repairs first. Staircase repairs and replacement was identified as a priority.
- The majority of repair work required at public housing units is unfortunately due to vandalism.
- If tenants have any safety concerns regarding their units and staircases, they are encouraged to please contact the Human Settlements Directorate’s Call Centre: 021 444 0333