A concerned resident from Valhalla writes:
I would like to respond to a letter from Rykie Morey from Centurion posted in the Rekord on Friday, 4 October.
Firstly, I know by responding to this absurd letter that I might be aggravating the situation, but I cannot be oblivious to the fact that people are misinterpreting this and making it an issue of religious intolerance, rather than ignoring the geographic factors that play a big role as the process that was, or should I rather say was not, followed by the City of Tshwane.
I feel that I have to clarify a few misleading points that this resident touched on.
Firstly, the residents of Valhalla have no problem with the mosque in terms of their Christian beliefs. It was made very clear in the meeting that the problem was not with the Thaba Tshwane Islamic Trust Centre, but in fact with the City of Tshwane for not following the correct procedures when they decided to, as part of their 20 years of democracy, donate the piece of land to Thaba Tshwane.
There were also various problems mentioned in the meeting regarding infrastructure, sewerage lines, traffic impact, etc, to name but a few, that speak against the building of such a prestigious structure in Valhalla.
It was also mentioned that various other businesses previously applied to purchase or rent this land and were turned down by the City of Tshwane. A very recent request was from a Christian school currently operating in Valhalla on small premises. They wanted to move to a bigger area and this particular piece of land, which is being disputed, was perfect.
Again, this request was turned down by the City of Tshwane. It should also be noted that according to the recent census published by Stats SA, there are 10 200 residents in Valhalla. According to the Thaba Tshwane Islamic Trust Centre there are currently 150 Muslim residents in Valhalla. This means only 1% of the Valhalla residents are Muslim! The closest Islamic mosque is 4km from Valhalla.
Various residents complained about how far they still have to drive to visit their respective place of worship. Tempers did run high, but it is easy for you staying in Centurion to make such statements as it is still far from your front door.
