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LEARNERS GETS A GLIMPSE OF WATER SCIENCE CAREERS
PLANS FINALLY AFOOT FOR EMBATTLED ERF
Stalemate finally breached LAUREN O’CONNOR-MAY
LAUREN.OCONNOR-MAY@NOVUSMEDIA.CO.ZA
H
ousing plans for land in Weltevreden Valley are finally back on track. The ground, Erf 2435, which had previously been under the custodianship of the Cape Town Community Housing Company (CTCHC) is now back under City’s control after a more than a decade-long battle that included court applications and a bail out by the National Housing Finance Corporation. On Monday 16 March the manager of Social Housing and Gap Housing in the Human Settlements Department, Pogiso Molapo, presented the item to a Subcouncil 17 meeting at the Lentegeur Administrative office.
Azra Safiedien looks at algae cultures under a microscope at the Stellenbosch University Water Institute table at a water science focused Career Day at Glendale High School. Read more on page 2.
HISTORY “It was owned by the City,” Molapo told councillors while recounting the history of what had happened with the 11,8-ha piece of land. “It was sold to the Cape Town Community Housing Company (CTCHC) to develop institutional housing.” Such housing, he explained, was for those who qualified for a housing subsidy, “people who earned between R3 000 and R3 500
ACKERMAN’S ROBBED IN TOWN CENTRE PAGE 2
SNAKES GET COSY IN SAN REMO STREET PAGE 3
HOUSING PLANS DERAILED BY LONG LIST OF PROBLEMS ON WELTEVREDEN GROUND
at the time.” The sale was concluded in 2013, but the now-defunct CTCHC wasn’t able to develop the land, particularly after environmental and other necessary studies were conducted on the site, and it filed for bankruptcy in 2017. “Owing to these financial difficulties the CTCHC notified the City of Cape Town that it will not be able to proceed with the development of the site,” Molapo said. Furthermore, he said, the validity of the studies done on the ground also lapsed. “So since 2018 to date we have tried to get citizenship to look after the land.” The CTCHC had not maintained or secured the property, Molapo explained. STALEMATE “The City took CTCHC to court several times for failure to look after the land and non-payment of its rates and taxes,” Molapo said. Neither of these avenues bore fruit and eventually the City invoked a clause in the original
sale agreement. “We realised that obviously we’re not going to win,” Molapo said. “We then invoked clause 6.5 in the sale agreement, which allows the land to revert back to the City of Cape Town.” This process was also stalled because CTCHC could not afford legal representation. “It took long because the CTCHC did not have funding to appoint conveyancers and also to pay for the rates bill that had been accrued.” The National Housing Finance Corporation, which had bought the CTCHC by that point, bailed it out and the land was transferred back to the City at the end of last year. “As the owner of CTCHC the corporation agreed to pay those costs and that of the conveyancers assisting us in getting the land transferred back to the City,” Molapo said. He said now, more than 10 years after the original sale, the “stalemate” has finally been overcome. TO PAGE 3
MAYOR TURNS SOD AT PAVILION PAGE 4