The R8.5-million Kwa-Shenge housing project, which is a Entrepreneur Empowerment Property Fund (EEPF) project, was launched in Kempton Park, in Ekurhuleni, earlier this month.

The EEPF, itself a Gauteng Partnership Fund (GPF) incubator programme, aims to promote the participation of companies owned by previously disadvantaged citizens in the affordable rental- property market.

The Gauteng Department of Human Settlements head of communications Victor Moreriane and GPF CEO Boni Muvevi officially launched the Kwa-Shenge development.

The National Housing Finance Corporation (NHFC) was also a cofunder of the project and was represented at the launch by its assistant executive manager Thanda Ndaba.

The project consists of 24 two-bedroom, fully lettable units and is the brainchild of investment company Zakhele Investments owner Themba Buthelezi, a 29-year-old previously disadvantaged property owner.

In 2011, Buthelezi approached the GPF through the EEPF to conceptualise the development, which is intended to house lower-to middle-income earners.

The construction on the project began in April last year and was completed at the end of August.

“The GPF gave us a platform to realise this dream. Breaking into the property development space is not easy, but we were afforded the opportunity through the support of the GPF,” he said.

Muvevi said the EEPF was designed in 2010 to introduce black developers to the affordable- housing market.

To date, the GPF has 71 companies under the programme, almost half of which are women-owned.

“Our mandate for housing is challenging. The rental challenges are significant and we need to engage the developers that see opportunities in various areas. This is step in the right direction for the development of the economy and to help previously disadvantaged people develop,” Muvevi stated.

Moreriane said the department would continue to support initiatives that promoted the advancement of human settlement projects.

“We have taken a strategic position to densify human settlements in the province, as this will enable us to accommodate more people in a precinct. We cannot continue to provide reconstruction and development programme houses as the only shelter,” he stated.

GPF investment committee chairperson and Consulting Engineers South Africa CEO Lefadi Makibinyane noted that it was the GPF’s aim to see that the distribution of wealth reached all South Africans.

Ndaba stated that the NHFC, specifically, aimed to develop precincts in Gauteng to empower certain areas and to ensure that they contributed to the province’s growth.