Mother City’s Housing Project Wins First Place

Cape Town and partners' housing project named best in South Africa.

Last Updated: 28 November 2016

The City of Cape Town, together with the Cape Town Community Housing Company, have been praised for their outstanding service delivery, quality and efforts to bring dignity to lower-income families. 

The Harmony Village housing project in Mitchell's Plain was named the best institutional housing project, in the country, at the 2016 National Govan Mbeki Awards ceremony which took place at the Durban International Convention Centre on Thursday, 24 November 2016. The annual Govan Mbeki Awards honours those who perform remarkably in delivering quality housing.

The project has empowered 850 homes where the monthly household income is R3500. The development is part of an institutional housing programme which assists those who earn too much for subsidised housing, but do not qualify for bank loans because their income is too low.

Harmony Village in Mitchell's Plain | Image credit: City of Cape Town

The Harmony Village project is a palpable example of the change in housing provision that the City wishes to undertake in the future. The focus will be placed on social and institutional housing as a mechanism to greater delivery. Cape Town initiates the projects through its partners who are strongly community-driven. The purpose is to increase this type of housing in well located areas across the metro over the next few decades, mostly for residents who earn just more than the threshold of being considered the most vulnerable in our society.

Cape Town is also very proud of its other category front-runners: the Scottsdene rental housing project, the Langa hostel transformation project and the Bardale/Mfuleni development. All these developments emerged as winners in the provincial Govan Mbeki Awards, held earlier this year in September.

By Garth Prins

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