Locals bemoan choice of public meeting’s venue
LINKSFIELD – A local architect and Ward 32 Councillor Steven Kruger slammed Bokamoso landscape architects and environmental consultants venue of choice for the public meeting for the proposed Linksfield mixed-use development.
The Environmental Impact Assessment Town planner and architect, Marian Laserson said, “Bokamoso has called a public meeting on 19 November. Note that the venue is probably 30 kilometres from Sizwe Hospital. That is not acceptable. We are very angry about this. I suggested boycotting the meeting. Bokamoso said they needed an auditorium which holds over 1 000 people. Well, they must find one close to the site. We have masses of elderly people, like me, who resent having to pay over R100 in travelling costs to go out at night to a city we do not know. Also, the choice of the date is during exam time which is not acceptable.”
The proposed plan is to develop the surrounding land near the Sizwe Hospital, which is the site of an old cemetery. The hospital, formerly known as Rietfontien Hospital, was established 115 years ago and treated patients who had bubonic plague, smallpox, leprosy and TB. Patients who had died from those diseases were buried in close proximity to the hospital. Laserson had already voiced her objections to the plan. She said, “The cemetery was home to about 7 000 graves and was concerned that the digging up of these graves could lead to an outbreak of these diseases.”
Putting his weight behind Laserson, Kruger said it was a very bad choice of venue and very few people will attend. He said the problem is that within the area, the only public venue is Jabula Recreation Centre, but it can only hold about 300 seated people. If they have it close by, there won’t be enough space for all the people who attend, but if they have it far away like planned, it seems unlikely that even 100 people will attend.”
Bokamoso’s public participation consultant Juanita De Beer said the time period of the public meeting was in November. De Beer said, “We cannot change the venue at this stage and we are not trying to make this inconvenient for anyone. We have struggled for more than a month to book a venue in the Linksfield area. We usually get a venue close to the study area, but the amount of registered interested and/or affected parties (1118 people) makes it more difficult.” She added that it was a difficult time of the year to book venues and hoped that people understood the situation.
