#Letter: Building a community requires vision
"The community objection to the sale of 4 000m2 of public open space or green belt by the KwaDukuza municipality is not about race or faith, but about protecting forever valuable and increasingly scarce public facilities that are used by all members of our community" - Malcolm Kensett.
Ballito resident Malcolm Kensett writes:
Ashraf Mather, your letter to the Courier (25 November) cannot go unanswered.
The key points you made were:
• You support a non-racial place of worship.
• Council is motivated by our Constitution and culture of Ubuntu.
• Ballito was a “white” area…
• Objections are unreasonable, selfish, subjective and without merit.
• Exclusivity based on race, privilege and entitlement has no place in our country.
• A place of worship for Muslims would create social cohesion.
The community objection to the sale of 4 000m2 of public open space or green belt by the KwaDukuza municipality is not about race or faith, but about protecting forever valuable and increasingly scarce public facilities that are used by all members of our community.
This was covered extensively when the Townsend Park issue was first raised.
You may remember we concluded:
Public open spaces, parks, gardens and green belts zoned as such are not for sale, or for rezoning.
The Muslim community and all faith groups are welcome in Ballito but must comply with existing town planning requirements.
The ZIS is welcome and free to consider any site they find suitable which is correctly zoned.
Further, it’s time for KDM to appreciate that they are employed by the Dolphin Coast community and need to start listening to us.
They can begin by retracting the proposed sale. Time will tell, and we are watching.
KDM is not cash-strapped and have no financial need for the sale of our valuable community property.
Forgive me if l am beginning to think they cannot be trusted to act in our interest.
And, finally Ashraf, if we, all of us including you, are to move forward and build a community and future that we all aspire to, then we need to do so with love, common vision and to move away from old-style division and politics.
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