Soshanguve residents say no to housing development, demand soccer field

Residents feel that a new development will not cater to the area's youth and may also attract criminals.

Residents Soshanguve Block WW are not happy that their former sports ground will be developed for houses to be built on.

Residents of Soshanguve Block WW have demanded answers about their local sports ground which was being used for housing development, Pretoria North Rekord reports.

The land would be used for building houses and creating a recreational park, according to Valumax Housing spokesperson Lucas Mokoena. Valumax is the company behind the development.

Mokoena said the ward councillor for the area was aware of the matter.

“There is no allocated period for us to finish working on that land, but we released a map of what we are going to use that land for,” said Mokoena.

Soshanguve block WW ward 35 councillor Maria Sikhosana told Rekord that an alternative land for the residents was being provided in ward 89.

“We are now waiting for the municipality to give us proper sports facilities. During negotiations, we agreed that there should be a small park for kids to play in that identified land,” said Sikhosana.

Resident and football player Bonolo Rotane said he was disappointed that local sports teams had nowhere to train for their games.

“We have been without a soccer field since June 2017. They have not even started with their building project yet but we are here without a sports field. It is very sad indeed that we were not alerted beforehand that soon we will not have a soccer field,” said Rotane.

Rotane said the alternative land was far from their residential area compared to the previous one.

Another resident Thabang Masehlwa said he did not support the planned development.

“It is obvious that the park is going to be misused by elders. They are going to host their parties and spin their cars. My concern is that the new park will not cater to the youth as the sports ground did. I am also worried that the park might attract criminals,” said Masehlwa.