As part of the Habitat for Humanity South Africa (HFHSA) Blitz Build Project 2011, Nedbank Home Loans built homes for three families costing R300 000.

Home sweet home: New homeowners, Jethro, his wife Wendy and children Kutlano and Gontshe, Eugene Drotskie (general manager for Nedbank Home Loans Operations) with Sammy Monyepao, HFHSA community operations manager at the house handover ceremony.

The families were handed over the homes after Nedbank Home Loans spent a week building the homes in Orange Farm, Gauteng, Mfuleni in the Western Cape and Umbumbulu in KwaZulu-Natal.

Each of the homes cost R100 000 to build, says Eugene Drotskie, general manager for Nedbank Home Loans Operations.

He says the bank has been involved with Habitat for Humanity since 2004. In 2010, Nedbank Home Loans partnered with HFHSA and built three homes over five days in Orange Farm and KwaZulu-Natal.

“This community involvement reflects Nedbank’s commitment across all its products including home loans.”

He explains that for a week in Orange Farm, Gauteng, at least some 15 Nedbank employees took turns to build a house for a family of four who have been sharing a tiny two room house.

Homeowners, Jethro Mashile (50), his wife Wendy Manyatsa (37) and their two children, Kutlano (6) and Gontshe (1) were all smiles as Nedbank Home Loans handed over keys to their new four-room house with all the basic amenities.

The family moved to Orange Farm in 1995 and had been living in Mapetla, Soweto with Mashile’s parents' family and needed to have his own place.

The couple are both unemployed and survive on doing what is termed as ‘piece jobs’, the informal work that members of the community pay them to do. Mashile also collects tins and sells them for recycling purposes.

The only sustainable income comes from the social grant for the children, an amount of R520 every month.

Speaking to Property24 at the handover ceremony, Mashile said he has been on the housing waiting list for the past six years and was overwhelmed with joy that his turn had finally come.

“I am very happy for my family and my children will soon have a spacious place to study and grow in a decent home.”

Kutloano is in grade R this year. Manyatsa said they were grateful to Nedbank Home Loans for contributing money and time to ensure they live in a better home. The family will rent out the two room house and will use the rental as a source of income to support the family.

Drotskie says as a bank, it is not enough to contribute money towards building the homes. The human capital, its own employees also played a big role and because they want to be involved in building these homes, and it reinforces the bank’s commitment to not just building banks but being a part of the community in which they operate.

According to the Department of Human Settlements, South Africa has a housing backlog of over 2.3 million and more than 12 million people in dire need of homes.  

To date three-million houses have been built in developing formal settlements since 1994. The constant increase in the mushrooming of informal settlements however, remains a challenge due to the increased number of households despite government’s progress of 200 000 houses built annually.

Housing remains a major challenge for many people in South Africa and the bank believes these initiatives offer excellent opportunities to contribute towards alleviating the housing backlog in the country, says Drotskie.

“This initiative provided staff to volunteer towards a good cause and make a difference in the lives of three families nationally,” he says.

In 2005, the Nedbank Foundation and its staff members built five houses for families in Mabele-a-Podi village and have since built over 15 houses in the area.

In 2008, the bank built 10 houses in Lerome Village near Sun City and families were given seedlings and equipment to assist them to start their own vegetable gardens.

HFHSA is a non-profit housing organisation that seeks to eliminate poverty housing and homelessness.

HFHSA has been building homes in South Africa since 1996 in Cape Town, Durban and Gauteng.It is funded by South African donors.

Homeowners in this project are required to contribute Sweat Equity (physical work on other homeowners’ homes before qualifying for their own home) and to cede their government subsidy to HFHSA in lieu of the normal Habitat for Humanity practise of providing interest free loans to the beneficiaries.

Beneficiaries are selected based on their financial need and willingness to partner with their community group and HFHSA.

The selection criterion is based on:

- the family must earn a combined monthly income of between R0 and R3 500
- they must be living in a sub-standard housing
- they must own the land on which the house will be built and be in a possession of the Title Deed or Permission to Occupy Certificate
- they must perform Sweat Equity
- they must qualify for a South African government housing subsidy.

For involvement with HFHSA, companies and corporates can choose to fund without participating or fund with participation in the building of the houses through the Raise a Roof (Blitz Build Project) in which Nedbank Home Loans was involved in. – Denise Mhlanga

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