I was one of the residents present at the public meeting on Friday, October 2 supposedly set up by the Hibiscus Coast Municipality to ‘inform’ residents about its plans to deconstruct Alamein Road and turn it into an industrial nightmare.
This so called public meeting was presented as a ‘proposal’ yet the municipal members present had already formulated a complete plan which, according to them, was already a third complete.
The officials from HCM listened to all our comments and will probably be under instruction to ignore them all, much as all our written objections were probably never even tabulated or read as regards the rezoning issue of 1959.
According to the window dressing that was presented, HCM has a ‘spatial development framework’ that includes both Alamein Road and Masinenge.
How they propose to lump us all into this magic plan is any one’s guess, seeing as the freeway splits both regions down the middle.
It is very suspicious that Siva Pillay of lot 1959, who is hellbent on turning Alamein into an industrial war zone, was refused permission to rezone to industrial because no ‘spatial development framework’ existed to accommodate industrial activity in our road.
So why now is it so urgent to have a ‘spatial development framework’ and move the goalposts? Presumably to accommodate Mr Pillay and no one else.
Residents of Alamein were shocked to hear of this plan, which is already a third complete, as the first we were told about it was in last week’s Herald.
It is the pet project of Siyabonga Zama of the HCM, who was conspicuously absent from the public meeting, as was our Mr Pillay.
Why? Because they think it is already a done deal.
Since when is it democratic and in line with our constitution to respect the wishes of ONE man and ignore the majority opinion?
And why, pray tell is Mr Pillay still operating on lot 1959 as if nothing was ever decided in court?
This as far as I am concerned, stinks to high heaven.
MARTINE BLACKER
Uvongo
