An emerging contractor was awarded the Best Woman Contractor in the Western Cape 2017 Govan Mbeki Awards held at the Lord Charles Hotel on Friday evening.
The announcement was made by the Provincial Human Settlements Minister, Bonginkosi Madikizela during the department’s prestigious annual event which seeks to celebrate and honour municipalities, contractors, developers and other stakeholders in the human settlements delivery chain.
Vicmol Construction, a 100 % woman construction company scooped the award following its immense contribution in successfully unblocking and completing housing projects in Wallacedene, Kraafontein and Bardale in Mfuleni.
Stellenbosch Municipality scooped two awards in two categories; Best Integrated Residential Development Programme (IRDP) for its Jamestown project and was a joint winner in the Best Upgraded Informal Settlements Programme (UISP) together with Oudtshoorn Municipality for its Watergang project.
The runner-up for the UISP category is the Ethembeni Project in Knysna. The Best Integrated Residential Development Programme runners’ up awards were collected by the Overstrand Municipality for its Mount Pleasant Housing Project and Laingsburg for its Goldernerville Housing Project.
Knysna and City of Cape Town Municipalities were joint winners in the Best Enhanced Peoples Housing Process (EPHP) category. Runner-up for this category was the City of Cape Town for its Bardale 1 Housing Project in Mfuleni.
The Best Rural Housing Programme was awarded to the Haarlem Housing Project in George while the Best Social Housing Programme went to the City of Cape Town’s Belhar Gardens Project.
Swartland Municipality in Malmesbury was awarded the Best performing Municipality in the province.
Minister Madikizela said the event was to celebrate excellence in the human settlements sector and the winners were people who have gone an extra mile, not only to build houses but to build quality homes for the people.
“To us all the nominees are winners. The fact that they managed to be at this stage shows that they are doing a fantastic job. This is also an opportunity to engage our partners in the human settlements space and talk about new innovations and approaches they are taking in terms of housing delivery going forward,” said Minister Madikizela.
He challenged the builders to come up with proposals to deal with the current status quo and come up with innovations to deal with the current financial and water crisis.
Madikizela said the human settlements sector has built more than 4.4 million houses and managed to house more than 20 million people across South Africa and that is a good reason to celebrate. He said the cost of houses built since 1994 is estimated at R200 billion. “The time to give free houses to everyone is about to come to an end. This is because the current situation we are facing in the country where the population is growing faster than the economy makes us unable to fund the social commitments we have made because the economy is just not growing. This simply means that as government, we need to make a decision that we assist only those who cannot assist themselves. These are the elderly, child headed households and the most vulnerable,” said Minister Madikizela.
He added that the Western Cape budget of R2.5 billion was only enough to assist 18 000 families in a province with a backlog of about 575 000 households.
The Provincial winners will represent the Western Cape Province in the National Govan Mbeki Awards to be held in Johannesburg in November.
The list of all 2017 winners are:
Best Upgrading of Informal Settlements Programme (UISP)
Rosevalley – Oudtshoorn – Winner
Watergang – Stellenbosch – Winner
Ethembeni Project – Knysna – runner-up
Integrated Residential Development Programme (IRDP)
Jamestown Project – Stellenbosch – Winner
Mount Pleasant – Overstrand – 1st runner up
Goldernville – Laingsburg – 2nd runner up
Enhanced People Housing Process (EPHP)
Vision 2000 – Knysna – Winner
Ocean View – Cape Town – Winner
Bardale 1 – Cape Town – runner-up
Social Housing Programme (SHP)
Belhar Gardens Project – Cape Town – Winner
Best Rural Housing Programme
Haarlem Farm Worker Housing Project – George – Winner
Best Woman Contractor
Vicmol Construction – Winner
Linamandla Construction – runner-up
Merit Awards:
Best performing Municipality
Swartland – Malmesbury
Long Service Award
Mr Cecil Afrika
Post Humous Service Award
The Late Mr Tulli Mathiya
