SA Affordable Housing September - October 2016 // Issue: 60 | Page 12

NEWS

The houses cost R350 000 each.

Partnership funds new houses
for Haarlem farm workers
Thanks to a partnership between Human Settlements and George’s
business community, farmworkers in Haarlem, George have received
‘state-of-the-art’ houses.

O

n 1 August 2016, the Western Cape Minister of
Human Settlements, Bongikosi Madikizela, handed
over the 20 houses to farmworkers in Haarlem, just
outside George.

Speaking during the occasion, Minister Madikizela thanked
the business community and George Municipality for this
innovation. He also expressed his excitement and
concerns.

All the recipient farmworkers are employed at a local farm,
Strydom Estate. According to the one of the directors of
the farm, Johan Strydom, they bought the land so that
their employees and ex-employees could have decent
houses.

“I am excited and worried at the same time. I am excited
because these are state-of-the-art houses that show
innovation from the side of government. I am sad because
this is the standard that beneficiaries will be expecting
from now on and we cannot make it happen without
support from the business community,” says Minister
Madikizela.

“We want the best for our workers, ex-workers and their
families,” says Strydom.
The two-bedroomed houses that boast a shower, a solar
powered geyser and DStv, were made possible through a
partnership between the Provincial Department of