South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has launched construction of a US$1.8 billion-dollar housing project in Pretoria and commended the private sector for partnering with the government in ensuring the provision of affordable accommodation to the people.
Ramaphosa said the Mooikloof Mega Residential City Project in the administrative capital is expected to create over 40,000 jobs.
Noting that the initiative was a partnership between government and the private sector, the president said infrastructure development was key to attaining economic recovery in light of the Covid-19 pandemic that has devastated the country’s economy.
“The launch of the Mooikloof development is the outcome of a successful public-private partnership,” Ramaphosa said.
The project is a partnership involving private firm Balwin Properties, the Gauteng provincial government and the City of Tshwane.
Commenting on the project, Public Works and Infrastructure Minister Patricia de Lille said the government aims to promote integration among communities by helping those who had no access to decent housing to obtain home loans from banks.
The project would address apartheid spatial planning and bring about social justice, de Lille said, where white communities were built of better quality and far away from those of black communities’ homes which left so much to be desired in keeping with racial injustice laws.
NM/jn/APA