Cape Town council flats to get upgrade.

16 May, 2008

Maintenance work is to be carried out on thousands of flats and houses owned by the city council and rented out to poor tenants under an ambitious scheme due to begin in July.

Roughly 7,500 housing units in Connaught Estate, Scottsdene Flats, Uitsig Houses, Woodlands Flats, Mitchells Plain, Kewtown Flats, Heideveld Flats, Manenberg Flats and the Marble Flats will be involved in the first phase of the project, which is expected to take three years. Attention should then turn to the remaining 36,000 rental housing properties owned by the city council.

Work will be undertaken on the basis of an initial assessment and will include repainting. The city council has said tenants should not have to leave their homes during the work although this will only be established for sure once the initial assessment has been made.