SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY Building a caring and sustainable legacy

“What you leave behind is not what is engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others.” The words of Pericles, the Greek statesman and general who lived in the fifth century BC, sum up the legacy Nissan SA hopes will be created by its Blue Citizenship housing initiative in Zone 10, a new area of Ga-Rankuwa township, near Pretoria.

In September, MD Mike Whitfield officially opened the first showhouse of what will eventually become a new community. In partnership with Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality, Nissan SA will provide housing for thousands of people who might otherwise never own their own homes.

Corporate affairs director Wonga Mesatywa says Zone 10 is a greenfields

Wonga Mesatywa Nissan provides free eye testing for children project with 1 200 stands. The area will also include schools, parks and community facilities. The first phase of 50 houses will be built by the end of 2013.

He says each of the 40m homes is designed for a family of four and includes two bedrooms, a kitchen and a lounge. To qualify, applicants need to be on the Tshwane housing register, must never have previously owned a house and have a monthly household income of no more than R3 500. Special cases for consideration include the elderly, people with disability and child-headed households.

Tshwane is responsible for infrastructure like roads, street lights and sewerage. Nissan SA pays for house materials and construction. Each unit will cost about R108 000 to build.

Houses are designed by Habitat for Humanity SA, the local arm of a USbased international organisation which specialises in poverty housing and has worked with the Nissan group in other countries. Habitat SA will also oversee construction, which will be carried out by local building firms.

The initial cost to Nissan SA will be R5,6m. Mesatywa says the Japanese parent company has expressed interest in supporting further phases. He says Nissan SA’s commitment to Zone 10 is longterm. “We asked ourselves: what can we do so people will always remember we have been here? This programme meets a clear need and it is one we will continue to support for years to come. I don’t see a time when there will not be a need in SA for affordable housing.”

Says Tshwane executive mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa: “This partnership with Nissan is in line with the city’s strategy of transforming the city’s unequal and segregated landscape by building sustainable communities and providing adequate, quality services and infrastructure for all residents.

“We believe that having a home and an address is equivalent to having an identity document and will restore dignity