SPEECH BY BRETT HERRON, GOOD MEMBER OF THE WESTERN CAPE PRVINCIAL PARLIAMENT AND SECRETARY GENERAL
20 MAY 2021
PEOPLE OF DUNOON LEFT TO SUFFER
This government has a very funny attitude to urgency.
In fact, I would say it is an attitude that is perverted by an anti-transformation ideology.
A racist attitude about access to the city. It infects their approach to well-located land and decent housing.
They are paralysed by their own fears and internal conflicts.
And their decisions are influenced by the unseen hands of funders.
The fact that 40 months after an urgent need to provide decent housing to a community living in unacceptable conditions in Dunoon has still not been addressed is a symptom of all of this.
In February 2018, the relocation of hundreds of families living in Siyahlala, became urgent.
The urgency was described in official documents like this:
“In order to secure the wellbeing of the Siyahlala community and to ensure the service continuity of the Transnet railway Line, which performs a strategic function in transporting waste to and from the Vissershok landfill site, an immediate relocation plan for these community members needs to be implemented.”
And like this:
“Given the urgency and the desperate conditions faced by the community, an immediate and effective solution is required to relocate the community members that are currently occupying the area within the rail reserve (referred to as the Siyahlala community) into a safer living environment…”
Yet, they are still there. Living in those desperate conditions.
In April 2020, when the Coronavirus pandemic struck South Africa, this community had still not been housed or relocated.
It was identified by both the National Minister of Human Settlements and the Provincial MEC as overcrowded and a pandemic hotspot.
Families living in desperate conditions in Dunoon were once again identified as needing an urgent solution.
Yet they are still there. Living in those desperate conditions. 40 months later.
This is not because there wasn’t an immediate solution in 2018.
The solution was presented to this government in 2018:
- Use the City-owned land on Potsdam Road; and
- Make use of the emergency planning provisions in the Planning By-Law
But despite the urgency, this government could not bring itself to provide the dignified housing, they have been promising to build on Winning Way, on the Potsdam Road site because it was too close to Table View.
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Transparency International says “Land is the new currency of corruption”. This government chose to avoid the Potsdam land site and purchased unsuitable land, within a formalised industrial park, including a large unusable wetland at three times the market value.
There is no rational basis for purchasing the land in Winning Way and I submit it amounts to fruitless and wasteful expenditure.
It raises legitimate questions about possible corruption.
Despite the availability of the City-owned land on Potsdam Road, the Provincial Government instructed the HDA to acquire 14 of the 16 erven, in the industrial park, at a price of R64,6 million. The two erven that were not yet purchased are critical servitudes without which the land is even more useless.
This land had already been offered to the City for the purpose of housing and had been evaluated by the City’s Urban Integration department.
In a memorandum dated 7 November 2017 the Director advised that of the 17.4 hectares being offered to the city – 5.5ha is unusable wetland. She sets out the history of the matter – including that the Province had been interested in purchasing the land from as early as at least October 2017. This government was then told that the seller was negotiating with the City.
The Province was so eager to acquire this land that the City officials were advised that if the City did not purchase the land then the Province would, and if the City wanted to purchase the land but didn’t have the funds then the Province would provide the funds.
The Director’s memo to the City’s Property Management Department, which should’ve acted on the instruction of the acquiring department, but appeared to be taking its instructions for elsewhere, said that the property was overpriced.
The memo says that the asking price of R88 million was overpriced and the R58 million the Property Management Department was apparently negotiating was overpriced.
In fact, the City acquired an adjoining piece of land, of 130 000m2, for R9 million. The Province paid R64.6 million for about 100 000m2.
The Owners Association of the Industrial Park estimate the land to be valued at R21 million.
While families are abandoned to live in desperate conditions the DA government continues to pursue land that is over-priced and unsuitable.
Besides an overwhelming question about the dignity, safety and health of the families in Dunoon there’s a question the DA must answer. Did the DA get a kickback in this land deal?