Residents in OR Tambo’s home village of Nkantolo in the Eastern Cape have much to celebrate as the late stalwart’s centenary year has brought about positive developments.
The provincial Department of Human Settlement has rolled out a housing project of 1 000 houses, with 500 of those houses completed in Nkantolo where the longest-serving ANC President OR Tambo was born.
Born on 27 October 1917, OR, as he was fondly known, would have turned 100 years this year. He, however, died on 24 April 1993 after suffering a stroke at the age of 75. Tambo died one year before the 1994 general elections in which Nelson Mandela became President of South Africa.
Government has declared this year as ‘The Year of Oliver Reginald Tambo’.
As the chair of the Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) on the OR Tambo centenary celebrations, Minister Radebe said throughout the year, the Eastern Cape government has worked very hard in its implementation of key OR Tambo legacy projects in the area of Mbizana and Nkantolo.
“Out of the remaining 500 houses for Silangwe village, 100 houses have been built, while construction of the remaining 400 houses will be completed by the end of the current financial year.
“[A total of] 1 000 households have been connected to date and the breakdown is as follows: 300 households for Empetsheni village, Ludeke 200, Qungebe 26, Jama village 224, KwaMpisi 250,” Minister Radebe said during a briefing on milstones reached on the road towards the celebration of OR Tambo’s birthday.
In addition, the provincial Department of Roads and Public Works has upgraded and completed a 13 kilometre stretch of road from Ludeke to Nkantolo.
“The construction of Ludeke dam has been completed. An amount of R100 million has been approved by the Department of Water and Sanitation for secondary bulk infrastructure and this will enable the water reticulation from the dam to benefit people in Alfred Nzo District Municipality and Mbizana Local Municipality and most importantly, Nkantolo village in Ward 04,” Minister Radebe said.
The construction of Nkantolo Multi-Purpose Community Centre is currently underway and the projected completion timeline is 31 March 2018.
Processes are in place to accelerate the refurbishment of the OR Tambo garden of remembrance.
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