Since 2001, Sun City has built a total of 42 houses, three clinics and several school classrooms, positively affecting the lives of both the home owners and the home builders.
The project is undertaken in partnership with the provincial Department of Correctional Services and simultaneously addresses the problem of creating housing while finding work for parolee prisoners in the region. Many parolees are young, uneducated and unskilled, lacking support from family and ostracised from their previous communities. They are supported at a Department-sponsored halfway house that cares for their immediate needs while equipping them with practical skills they need to find jobs.
Using Sun City's special brick-making machine some parolees are taught to manufacture the bricks while others are taught building skills, in turn benefitting communities. The clinics, which have been built in this way, now serve a community of approximately 50 000, saving those residents from having to travel great distances for even the most rudimentary medical treatment.
The Tribal Authorities and local North West municipalities partner Sun City and ensure that the needs of those in their regions are addressed. The three latest recipients of new homes were all living in dire circumstances within the Rustenburg and Moses Kotane municipalities.
For the Madinyana family of Chaneng, help could not have come too soon. Living in a shanty home and battling health problems, the two pensioners said that their request for Sun City's assistance was their last hope. And it came to them on Mandela Day when work began on their new home. The Executive Mayor of Rustenburg, Cllr Mpho Khunou, himself was there to lay 67 bricks.
The eight-member Moatshe family from Moruleng lived precariously in an unstable mud house. With no household income and no hope of raising the capital to move or undertake the repairs necessary to make their home safe, they too turned to Sun City.
The third request was received from the Department of Local Government & Traditional Councils who requested assistance for the Monamodi family in Moruleng. The aged grandmother and her young grandchild lived in a small shanty dwelling. For them, Nelson Mandela Day began with a visit from the Mayor of Moses Kotane, Cllr Fetsang Mokati.
The three families each received a 16 square metre home consisting of two bedrooms and an open-plan kitchen and lounge area. The properties also include water storage tanks to make the most of rainwater. The properties are large enough for families to expand their homes if and when they are able to do so. The electrified homes were all fully furnished and included stoves and fridges, and came equipped with bedding and linen.
Handing over the homes, Sun City's managing executive, Geoff Above, said: "It has been heart-warming to meet the three families and to witness their joy at having their desperate prayers for help answered. We wish the families many years of happiness in their new homes. For us, what the project highlights is the difference that a private-public partnership can make and the positive impact that it can have in a region."
