R70 million development questioned by Tarlton community
The FF+ has three main concerns: the overpriced property; the brittle dolomitic ground, and the public participation procedures.
The Freedom Front Plus (FF+) in Mogale City has once again expressed its concern about the construction site in Tarlton where the intention is to build more than 6 000 houses for those living in squatter camps in the surrounding areas. The project will cost more than R70 million.
Amanda de Lange, member of the FF+, has raised three main concerns the party has about this development:
• the houses will be built on dolomite, increasing the risk of sinkholes
• the incorrect public participation procedures were followed
• the Gauteng Department of Housing paid a ridiculous amount of money for the property on which the houses are going to be built
The property is known as Brickvale farm 161 IQ (130ha) and despite the FF’s warning that it would be dangerous to build high-density housing on it, it’s crowded with bulldozers and workers. Geo-technical tests had to be done to ensure that it would be safe for residents to live there.
Also Read: Tarlton community said no against the building of 6 000 RDP houses!
The company employed to do this is Karp Consulting, but it’s both impossible to get hold of anyone at the company, and difficult to establish whether or not the tests were ever done.
Neither the Gauteng department, nor the Mogale City Local Municipality could provide the FF+ with any geo-technical test results to prove that the tests were indeed done.
The FF+ believes that the departments are keeping the necessary information secret.
Photo: Bianca Pindral.
However, during a recent demonstration, the beneficiaries of the project made it clear that they had been informed otherwise. They say that the managers of the project told them that they are going to build special foundations to keep the houses from falling into sinkholes and where the ground is too brittle to support structures, they were going to build sports grounds.
The second concern raised was that the community members living around the development had not been part of the public participation process, although they feel they should have been. Member of the Executive Committee for Housing, Uhuru Moiloa, was interviewed on the TV programme, Fokus, and said that if 1 500 residents had received the public participation forms, and 25 had not, “who should we believe?”.
This is the argument most of the residents are using to keep the project from going forward. The beneficiaries, by contrast, strongly believe that technicalities during the public participation process shouldn’t keep them from getting houses.
“We have been waiting for these houses for many years,” said community coordinator, Emmanuel Munyai. “We have elders who have been waiting more than 20 years for these houses.”
The final concern is that the Department of Housing paid Mogale City almost 21 times the value of the property, which raises more questions. The value of the property is estimated at about just less than R3 million, but the Department paid R63 million for it.
The FF+ still believes the lives of the beneficiaries are being endangered, despite the warnings, and that the MEC should be held accountable should any of the beneficiaries be injured when the houses start to fall into sinkholes.
Moiloa also claims that the FF+’s warnings are mainly racist, a claim which the FF+ has denied, saying that they were simply telling the truth to save the lives of the beneficiaries.
The spokesperson for Mogale City, Nkosana Zali, could not be reached for comment.
Do you perhaps have more information pertaining to this story? Email us at krugersdorpnews@caxton.co.za (remember to include your contact details) or phone us on 011 955 1130.
For free daily local news on the West Rand, also visit our sister newspaper websites
Remember to visit our Facebook, Twitter and Instagram pages to let your voice be heard!
