Sunnyside land fetches R18,7 million in historic auction
A prime property in Sunnyside fetched R18,75 million at a historic land auction on Tuesday during which the Tshwane metro made available 17 parcels of land to go under the hammer to raise money to provide services to the poor.
The first parcel of Tshwane metro land auctioned on Tuesday in a land release programme to raise money was a Sunnyside property that fetched a whopping R18,7 million.
Seventeen metro-owned properties came under the hammer, raising a combined R188 million. This was much less than expected after two prime properties, situated in the east and housing the notorious Plastic View squatter camp, were withdrawn at the 11th hour in terms of an urgent court interdict on Monday.
The reserve price on one of the withdrawn land parcels across the road from the up-market Woodhill Boulevard shopping centre in Garstfontein Road was R350 million.
The High Street Auction Company was appointed by the metro to handle the auction – the first of its kind for a municipality in the country.
The Sunnyside property was the only vacant land in the highly developed Sunnyside and is ideally situated opposite Sunny Park shopping centre. The site offers massive exposure onto the busy Steve Biko Road and bulk services are available on the land.
Another prime property in the east that came under the hammer was 7,7 hectare in Erasmuskloof near the intersection of Solomon Mahlangu Drive and Delmas Road. It was bought by the Public Investment Corporation, a wholly-owned government entity, for a massive R41,5 million.
“The property has mixed use development potential with services readily available, while there was also a condition that the new owner would maintain an existing wetland on the property and allow public access,” said lead auctioneer Joff van Reenen.
A successful interdict in the High Court in Pretoria on Monday brought by Lawyers for Human Rights on behalf of the residents of Plastic View, also known as Woodlane Village, to halt the sale of the land on which the informal settlement is located, placed a damper on the auction proceedings.
Despite an undertaking in an affidavit before the court that the rights of the residents of Plastic View would be protected and that plans were already underway to move them to a new location adjacent to where they were now, the court granted the interim interdict and the metro was forced to withdraw the property from the auction.
Judge Legodi Phatudi granted the urgent interdict to the residents pending an application to set aside the municipality’s decision to sell it on auction.
The sale of over 74 other properties was however not halted by the court as requested by the Plastic View residents. The judge refused to grant an order to stop the city from auctioning off other high value empty properties in its jurisdiction.
Tshwane metro announced the land release programme months ago, giving details of some 80 properties to be sold on public auction to raise funds for infrastructure development and other housing needs of the poor in the metro.
The controversial Plastic View is situated on one of the properties, but in its court papers the metro on Monday gave the assurance that the squatters would have right of tenure on the land until such time as they are relocated to an adjacent property one kilometre away.
The metro argued before court that the legal and proper relocation of the squatters was a condition of sale of the land and that whoever bought the land had to adhere to the conditions.
“If the residents of Woodlane are not relocated within 54 weeks of the sale, the metro would buy the land back from the buyer,” the court heard.
The city maintained it had financial problems and urgently needed the income from the properties.
Phatudi said Plastic View had been the subject of a number of court cases, including two judgments by the Supreme Court of Appeal which established the occupancy rights of the residents.
The applicants contended there was no innovative method of resolving the matter and in fact, the metro had not even informed them that the land was earmarked for public auction. Their engagement with the city did not bear fruit.
The judge ruled there was no doubt that the applicants had a legal right to the property – a right entrenched by two previous court rulings.
He added that the applicants had an apprehension of irreparable harm and it was common cause that should the mandate by The High Street Auction Company to auction the property proceed, the applicants would have no certainty of what would happen to them should the property be sold to another party without first being assured of their tenure.
“In my view, the sale of the property before relocation of the applicants is the invasion of the applicants’ rights and their legitimate expectation to be consulted prior to the sale or development has been embarked upon,” the judge ruled.
He said the occupation of the land by a developer constituted proof of a reasonable apprehension of injury to applicants’ rights.
The judge said Tshwane metro could not persuade him that there was another remedy available at the applicants’ disposal, other than that they would not be evicted from the area and that the deed of sale ensures non-eviction.
“In my view, the only ordinary remedy at the applicant’s disposal which provides them with the necessary protection is an interdict pending the finalisation of a review. I am however not persuaded to grant an interdict in respect of all properties within the jurisdiction area of the municipality,” the judge ruled.
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Plastic View formalisation woes
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