The Niall Mellon Township Initiative (NMTI) is a low-cost housing charity that has built 11,500 homes for families in need over the past 5 years in the Western Cape, Gauteng, and George areas of South Africa. It aims to assist the government in providing affordable housing and eradicating shack dwellings. Southern Sun has been actively involved through corporate social investment programs and volunteer work, including building a home for Fezeka Mabentsela, who had lived in a shack for 23 years. The NMTI builds high-quality, durable homes using timber construction and employs local community members during the building process.

1. southernsun.com 89
Home
A
Place
to
Call
In five years, a low-cost housing charity has built 11 500 homes for families
in the Western Cape, Gauteng and George. Denise Mhlanga outlines
Southern Sun’s involvement
Niall Mellon Township Initiative (NMTI)
and sponsored by Southern Sun.
Self-employed, she says her business
is likely to improve because of this, as are
the lives of her children now that they can
study under better conditions with enough
running water and electricity.
How it happened
Southern Sun was the first corporate to
participate in the volunteer programme in
the Western Cape to build houses for the
poor together with NMTI.
This low-cost housing charity, the
brainchild of Irish property developer
Niall Mellon, is now the largest provider
of charity housing in South Africa.
It aims to assist the local government
in providing affordable quality housing
to low-income and poor people in the
townships, as well as in eradicating shack
dwellings by 2014.
Since its operations started in the
Western Cape, the project has built 6 000
houses and aims to have completed a
further 7 000 by the end of 2008.
Hugh Brennan, chief executive officer of
NMTI, says in 2003 the charity built 25
houses with 15 volunteers from Ireland at
a cost of R10 million. This year the project
cost R300 million.
Priya Naidoo, Southern Sun’s general
manager of communications, says the
building of a house for Fezeka reflects the
company’s dedication to making a positive
impact within the communities in which
it operates.
The company has spent in excess of
R8 million through its corporate social
investment (CSI) programmes and will
F
or 23 years, Fezeka
Mabentsela lived in a shack
in Site C Western Cape
Township of Khayelitsha,
ever since her arrival from
a rural Transkei village.
She came to Cape Town
to look for a job and subsequently found
herself joining the thousands of people
who live in shacks in Khayelitsha.
Together with her four daughters, she
has seen it all – from shacks burning down
to being blown apart by gale-force winds, to
being washed away by rain, but luckily hers
remained undamaged. However, life in a
shack was not easy and decent housing
came at a price which she, like many
others, could not afford.
Now, however, life is looking up and
her home is a two-bedroom house built by
csI

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Changing the face
of South Africa
George and then on to Gauteng, where
3 000 houses to date have been built in
the townships of Ekurhuleni Metropolitan
Municipality.
It costs R80 000 to build a 40m2
two-bedroom house with a kitchen,
a living area, bathroom and toilet as
well as running water and electricity.
The charity, through its funding mecha-
nism, contributes 40% towards the house,
and a government housing subsidy covers
60%. Hugh says the project
builds quality houses so that
they can be profiled in the
property market five years
after their completion. These
houses are intended for people
with a monthly income of
R1 500. Those eligible can apply for
a house through their local department
of housing.
‘Our vision,’ says Hugh, ‘is to ensure
people have homes where they will realise
their full potential, have privacy and
enhance their self-esteem.’
PHOTOGRAPHY:NIALLMELLONTOWNSHIPTRUST
inclusive of airfare, accommodation and
a donation to the charity to pay for
building costs.
Individual South African volunteers pay
R100 000 while corporates pay R200 000
per team member to participate in the
one-day Building Blitz.
Apart from the much-needed houses for
shack dwellers, the project creates employ-
ment opportunities for the locals in the
communities in which they are building.
There is a permanent staff of 70 people
while 17 000 are employed by the project
in all areas of operation during the
construction of houses and Building
Blitz programmes.
Following the success of the pilot project
in Khayelitsha, the initiative spread to
continue to be actively involved with NMTI
in the building of houses in the townships.
What began with the construction of
25 houses in Khayelitsha in 2003 has
become a massive development project
which has yielded a total of 11 500 houses
in the Western Cape townships, George
and Gauteng.
Who does the work?
The project is run by volunteers, mostly
from Ireland, who arrive for the Building
Blitzes that take place throughout the year.
Because it is a charity project, NMTI raises
funds all year round and relies heavily on
donations and grants to sustain the business.
Irish volunteers in the Building Blitz
programmes pay as much as R50 000,
csI
‘Our vision is to ensure people have homes where they
will realise their full potential, have privacy and enhance
their self-esteem’