Construction World September 2015

PROJECTS AND CONTRACTS

A MEGA CITY IN THE MAKING

A previously empty piece of land, 20 kilometres south of Johannesburg, is being turned into a mega city, named Savanna City. This 1 462 hectare property will contain over 18 000 housing units, retail outlets, schools, clinics, crèches, churches and other community provisions. It will all be linked by some 127 kilometres of roads. Parks, sports fields, gardens and over 30 000 trees will make it a pleasant place in which to live.

Savanna City is a development of Basil Read, which manages a 50% interest, and the Housing Impact Fund of South

concept, most government departments have a part to play. Davina Piek, development director of Basil, explains: “Not all are funding partners, but most are. In the nature of things, it took a long time to resolve the issues around payment for bulk services before we broke ground. The Department of Human Settlements, National Treasury and Gauteng Province all helped to get us to the point of breaking ground. Govern- ment financed the Fully Subsidised Housing and assisted with bulk and link funding.” Savanna City will play another important role in the growth of the Gauteng economy. Once completed, it will provide a stable labour pool for Midvaal, Johannesburg and surrounding areas. The project has pushed boundaries in many areas. For the first couple of years this unique development will contribute to Midvaal municipality by means of an urban management grant of up to R35-million. “I have never seen anything like it in any project anywhere,” says

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Africa (HIFSA), a R9-billion fund formed by Old Mutual, with support from the DBSA, the Govern- ment Employees Pension Fund and the Eskom Pension and Provident Fund. Savanna City employs numerous contrac- tors, which in turn employ subcontractors. To support the growth of these small businesses, Savanna City Developments created a budget for skills development, outside Basil Read’s budget possibilities for the same purpose, co-operating with CETA (Construction Education and Training Authority). Savanna City aims to equip these small businesses with effectivemanagement principles, enabling them to manage and run a business. To date 15 small and medium enterprises has benefitted from this programme, which greatly increased their ability to compete in the market. In the development of the Savanna City

Piek. “We budget for it annually. Midvaal is not a big municipality and the money is used to beef up staff and equipment”. By the time Savanna City is completed it will have doubled the size of Midvaal. Midvaal have responded by employing a full-time project manager, something that has proven very useful. ”The urban management plan shows the roll-out of houses, the potential income from rates, taxes and municipal services, as well as the potential cost related to additional staff, equipment, vehi- cles and operational costs.“It is complicated,” says Piek, “but the co-operation between the people on all these bodies is really excellent. The way we are working together has made it possible to move the project forward strongly.

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CONSTRUCTION WORLD SEPTEMBER 2015