29 September 2023
On Thursday, 28 September 2023, Executive Mayor Gesie van Deventer, handed over more than 80 title deeds to residents of Longlands. This forms part of Mayor van Deventer’s commitment and promise to give people ownership of their properties.
Ownership creates empowerment and opportunity. It’s a pathway to freedom that some of the beneficiaries have waited for their entire lives. This is especially true for Mr Hermanus Otto, the oldest beneficiary at this week’s handover. He was completely overcome with emotion, knowing that she is now a legal homeowner with an asset that she can pass on to his children.
25 Years ago, residents were promised houses as part of the Longlands-Vlottenburg Housing Development. The project has experienced delay after delay but when Mayor van Deventer took office in 2016, this project became a top priority. After intensive engagements with different stakeholders in the community, a Multilateral Agreement was entered into between the Stellenbosch Council, the Western Cape Government and Longlands Village.
A total of 106 houses were constructed on the site as part of the first phase of the project and was completed by September 2022. The municipality installed services on 145 erven. This includes the construction of roads and installation of water infrastructure, sewer systems, and electrical connections. Funding for the top structures was provided by the Provincial Department of Human Settlements.
Since taking office in 2016, Mayor van Deventer has made a concerted effort to speed up the process of transferring title deeds. Since then, well over 2000 title deeds have been handed over to the rightful beneficiaries. Of these title deeds, 65% were for newly built projects and 35% were for historical projects.
Mayor van Deventer said: “It is truly an honour for me to give these residents the gift of owning their home. Ownership of your house creates a peace of mind that no money can buy and acts as a passport to economic participation. As a municipality, we will continue our efforts to transfer title deeds as quickly as possible. Empowerment starts with ownership and today I am overjoyed to be empowering these residents and their families.”
The Mayor also thanked the Khaya Lam project of the Free Market Foundation for their continued support in expediting the process of transferring title deeds to our residents.
