Delay looms for Malmesbury housing plan

The house being promised in a brochure circulating among poor people are unlikely to be built in the next few years.

That's the bad news from Cape Town city council in response to questions about the authenticity of claims in a brochure that anyone paying R3 500 to the SA Homeless People's Federation, will be buying a piece of land and getting a R54 000 government subsidy from the council to build a house on it.

The land in question - some 140ha adjacent to Chatsworth in the Malmesbury district - is undeveloped.

It is still owned by shareholders who are trying to sell their shares, and needs rezoning from agricultural to residential after an environmental impact studyhas been done.

"It is far too premature to even talk about building there," said a town planner, who asked not to be named.

But in the meantime the South African Homeless People's Federation is holding meetings in Dunoon and Joe Slovo to encourage people to pay a deposit of R3 500 to secure a site.

The federation's brochure says that of 10 000 sites available, some 1 600 are already being developed as "phase 1", and that only 500 sites are left in that phase.

Harriet Bosch, a mother of three who lives in Joe Slovo, said she had attended the meetings that the SA Homeless People's Federation held on Sundays in her area, and was assured that she and others who wanted to pay their deposits now would be able to get phase 1 homes "by the end of August".

She hoped to borrow the deposit from her employer, who wanted to see the completed houses before he would advance the money.

"The (federation's) committee says we can go and look at the houses," said Bosch. She was confident that once her employer saw the progress of phase 1, he would be convinced that "this is a true story".

But Alida Kotzee, director of strategy support and co-ordination in the city's housing directorate, said on Friday "expectations that cannot be fulfilled" were being created by the brochure's statement that the council would pay government subsidies.

"A government subsidy has certain criteria that must be complied with before anyone can benefit from it," said Kotzee.

The city had earmarked no subsidy funding for this particular project. "Furthermore, the city's subsidy allocation is committed to existing projects for the next four years."

Although Chatsworth was administered by the Swartland Municipality, the brochure was reaching people living in the City of Cape Town's jurisdiction, said Kotzee.

"The advertisements are sourcing potential beneficiaries and requiring them to pay money into the intended savings account.

"No mention is made of the procedures that would first have to be concluded, which entails, among other things, resolving land ownership, discussions with all the affected relevant city departments as well as the provincial government's human settlements department to determine the feasibility and viability of such a large housing project.

"No indication is given that environmental, geotechnical, zoning and project approvals or applications are in place.

"It is the city's contention that all the aforementioned points must first be addressed and resolved, before engaging with the communities, since none of these issues, approvals and acquisition of the land can be guaranteed.

"It is well known that the process, from securing the land to obtaining the necessary development rights and approval, may well take up to three years or longer. Only after this, can development start," said Kotzee.

An application in terms of the environmental legislation had been submitted to the provincial government and subsequently withdrawn, said Rudi Ellis, head of the Western Cape government's department of environmental affairs and development planning.

"No application for a rezoning in terms of the Land Use Planning Ordinance has been forwarded to this department either."

However, a rezoning application had been submitted to the Swartland Municipality, said Ellis.

Patricia Matolengwe of Philippi, head of the SA Homeless People's Federation, said her organisation had already paid R438 000 for a |20 percent portion of the land to a shareholder, Great Force Investments, trading as Stokvel Homes.

In February the federation had stopped paying Great Force Investments the instalments still owed for the land, because of "grey areas" she and other members felt needed clarifying.

She did not elaborate, apart from saying "we needed to talk first and understand exactly what we are doing". The federation had sought legal advice.

The brochure the federation |was circulating was on a letter-|head belonging to Stokvel Homes, to give credibility to its contents for anyone wanting to borrow the R3 500 from their employers, she said.

Matolengwe said she did not know how much money the federation had collected so far.

"I do not have a statement with me. We just need people to pay until they have given us R3 500 in instalments, and their money will be saved under our group."

Asked why the brochure stated that houses were already being built when the land was still farmland, Matolengwe said she did not know until recently that building had not yet started.

Tony van der Merwe of Stokvel Homes said the SA Homeless People's Federation was in breach of its contract with Great Force Investments because the federation had stopped paying the required instalments for the land.

He told Argus Action earlier last week that the SA Homeless People's Federation was not in a position to promise land to be developed "because there is very limited ground available".

Stokvel Homes had a 22 percent shareholding in the company that owned the land, and was negotiating to buy the company out with money from investors in England and South Africa.

Only 20 percent of the houses |to be built would be Reconstruction and Development Programme homes, said Van der Merwe.

Cape Argus

Posted at 08:06AM Aug 31, 2010 by Editor in Residential  |