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Mayeza overall winner Believes in building homes for the people, not houses
} Tladi Moloi HANTSI MAYEZA, the owner of Maono Construction and Property Development, was an overall winner during the 2013 Govan Mbeki Awards which were held in the Bethlehem Town Hall on Thursday night. Her construction company came second in the Best Woman Construction in a Subsidy Market category before she scooped another award in the Best Priority Project category. Mayeza walked home with a whopping R130 000 cheque, certificates and a trophy. She said she was overwhelmed by the Free State government’s recognition even though she did not expect the awards. “I have completed the housing project in Parys and Bethlehem. The best priority award was for the Bethlehem project where I built houses. I am a banker by trade and I started in the construction business four years ago,” she said. She said she had been doing her work for which she was appointed without expecting anything in return. “I wanted to deliver quality for the people of the Free State. I always told my team that we should build homes for the people, not houses. For me a home is a warm environment, hence I have decided to put ceilings in all the houses,” she said. Retlaphela Construction was the second runner-up followed by Maono Construction coming
HANTSI MAYEZA, the owner of Maono Construction and Property Development, poses with a cheque and trophy with Olli Mlamleli (left), the MEC for Cooperative Governance, Traditional Affairs and Human Settle ment, and Sesi Ntomebela (right), the MEC for Social Development, who was the acting premier on the day. Photo: Tladi Moloi second with Poloko Trading 509 winning the Best Woman Construction in a Subsidy Market category. Best Community Residential Unit was won by Corel and
Property Development. Retlaphela Construction scooped the Best Youth Contractor in a Subsidy Market with Motobatsi Construction coming second. The Abuja Consultancy won the
Best Informal Settlement Upgrading Project. Best Social Housing Project was won by the Free State Social Housing Company (Freshco). The MEC merit certificate was
awarded to JD Niewehuise for Best Student (BSC Construction Management) and NL Miya for Best Students (National Diploma in Building). Olli Mlamleli, the MEC for Cooperative Governance, Traditional Affairs and Human Settlement, said they were in Bethlehem to celebrate the unselfish human commitment to the plight faced by the poor in the terrain of housing. “We handed out awards named after one of our respected struggle heroes, ‘Oom Gov’,” she said. She said the awards were aimed at motivating all stakeholders in the housing industry to harness human and other resources in accelerating housing delivery to improve the lives of millions of poor people by building sustainable livelihoods, communities and human settlements, providing choice of quality housing, opportunities with secure tenure and access to social amenities. “It was the centre-piece of our responsibility to provide and coordinate human settlement in the province as housing is an element of establishing communities in decent manner for it is further said in this clause: ‘Unused housing space to be made available to the people’,” she said. The MEC congratulated all people who won the awards on the night and added that the government did not take them for granted in their great strides of assisting in the creation of a better life for all.