Cape Town — Building contractors on Wednesday started returning to the N2 Gateway Project site at the Delft township, following an eviction earlier this week where more than 1 000 backyard dwellers were illegally occupying unfinished houses.

The eviction came after the Cape High Court on Monday dismissed the backyard dwellers' applications for leave to appeal the eviction order.

The Department of Housing has announced that a quantity surveyor has already been appointed to assess damage caused by the home invaders.

"We want the contractor to move quickly to get the homes ready for handover. Thubelisha's [a specialist project management vehicle of the Ministry of Housing] target is to have 50 homes ready per week," the department said.

Thubelisha Homes has been mandated to construct transitional housing, using the Emergency Fast Tracking Programme.

Seventy percent of the homes would be allocated to former residents of informal settlements now living in Temporary Relocation Areas, and 30 percent to residents of backyard shacks and wendy-houses in the broad Delft area.

This ratio, the department said was agreed by the three levels of government following input from community and other stakeholders at the outset of the N2 Gateway Pilot Project.

"We have requested the Allocations Committee, run by the city and the province, to allocate beneficiaries to every available home, so the information can be published within seven days. Many of the homes had already been allocated prior to their being invaded."

A few hundred people have spent the past two nights camped outside across the road from the homes from which were evicted.

Police and representatives of private security companies hired by the contractors maintained a close watching brief.

Itumeleng Kotsoane, national Director-General of Housing, said the City of Cape Town should take responsibility for evicted people with nowhere to go following the arrest of one of its councillors for inciting the invasion.

It was also the municipalities' responsibility to protect state-owned land from invasion, he said.

Cabinet on Wednesday appealed for patience and respect following the situation in Delft.

Government Communications Spokesperson, Themba Maseko said on Wednesday that Cabinet noted developments in the Delft area near Cape Town where protests occurred.

"Cabinet is satisfied that both the Ministry of Housing, the Western Cape provincial government and the City of Cape Town were doing everything possible to ensure that the waiting list and the house allocation processes were managed as diligently as possible," said Mr Maseko.

Government would like to appeal to all communities to exercise patience and to respect due process as illegal occupations could lead to "anarchy and unnecessary violence".

"Government finds it very unfortunate and unacceptable that politicians would seek to exploit people's concerns for narrow and irresponsible political objectives," Mr Maseko said.

The N2 Gateway is a national pilot project aiming to pioneer a new and improved housing policy that will see the delivery of more and better-quality houses for the poorest South Africans in integrated human settlements.

It entails providing 22 000 homes, associated infrastructure, community facilities, and access to transportation and economic opportunities.

The project has been paid for by all nine provinces, to provide decent homes for people currently living in informal settlements.