The 300-capacity Ballito Prayer Hall will soon begin construction after receiving long-awaited planning permission.

Situated on Nandi Mthembu Drive in the Ballito Business Park, the hall is designed to provide for the prayer needs of Ballito’s resident and working Muslim community.

It has been a long-gestating project which faced delays during the approval process because of five objections lodged with the KwaDukuza municipality (KDM).

KDM said the municipal appeals committee met with the objecting parties twice and resolved to move for approval.

The objecting parties had 180 days from the meetings to lodge a High Court appeal, which they chose not to do.

The Ballito Muslim Trust (BMT), who are building the hall with publicly raised funds, said final approval was granted on May 24.

“Construction will now begin as soon as possible and is expected to take between one and two years,” said Ballito Imaam, Moulana Bilal Vally.

“The objection process was handled by the KDM team. I must add that the Muslim community of Ballito is very appreciative of this.”

Imaam Vally said he believed the 1 042m2 hall would be sufficient for the local Muslim community, both in terms of full-time residents and those who had prayer needs during their work week.

“Taking into account our current demands as well as the exponential growth we are witnessing within Ballito and the surrounding areas, we believe that upon completion the prayer hall will be large enough to service the Muslim community,” he said.

“We will most certainly require additional space as time passes. Our projects will definitely be aligned accordingly.”

Imaam Vally had previously confirmed to the Courier that no outside speakers would be installed and that the prayers would not be audible to the surrounding business park.

Once completed, the hall will cut down on travel time for local Muslims who have to go to Tongaat, Shakaskraal or KwaDukuza to pray in a mosque or proper prayer hall.

Ballito’s current offering is only a 70-capacity musallah and individual prayer rooms.

As for the proposed mosque at Townsend Park, which drew huge controversy when most recently announced in 2022, KDM said there remains no council decision on the matter.

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