Engineering - Elliotdale Housing

Funders
Department of Human Settlements and the Development Bank of Southern Africa .

Description
The majority of South African families live in rural areas with poor or inadequate housing. The Department of human settlements have developed a programme which is called, Breaking New Ground (BNG), where the housing subsidy which is based on the urban environment, is applied to a rural setting with houses built in the beneficiaries existing homesteads.

Lima in partnership with Teba Development and ACG Architects, have designed housing catalogues showing a variety of options, as well as alterations, additions, solar power, rainwater tanks, fencing and wood stoves. The beneficiary is then able to select from a number of house types and homestead improvement options for the available subsidy from the catalogue.

Lima identifies and provides training to local artisans. These artisans are encouraged to start up small contracting companies. These companies are then contracted for specific construction tasks using a predetermined labour only tariff. Lima supervises the contractors to ensure that the supplied house design is adhered to and that the implementation programme is achieved. Due to the wide variety of options provided and the subsequent range of materials and tasks, a comprehensive database was developed for material and payment control.

Impact
A total of 1000 beneficiaries will receive houses over a 2 year programme. Approximately 150 skilled and 500 unskilled labourers will be employed on the programme. An estimated R100 million will be spent on materials and labour over the 2 year programme.

Area Of Implementation
Eastern Cape : Mbashe Local Municipality - Ward 17 and 26