The issuing of a licence for a casino at Menlyn Maine is out of the Tshwane Metro Council’s jurisdiction. Those objecting to the development should approach the Gauteng Gambling Board.
“If anyone has a view (on the matter) take it to the Gambling Board,” said Tshwane’s executive mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa.
Ramokgopa said at the council’s monthly meeting yesterday that the municipality had no say on whether the Gambling Board issued a licence or not. “Ours is to ensure the densification of the area, and we are going ahead with that,” he said, adding that the issue was not about the casino “but about the racial integration of that enclave”.
Ramokgopa said: “Change is coming and we are bringing people to these areas.”
He said that issues relating to traffic congestion due to the development would be addressed.
“We have traffic engineers who would be able to address this problem. There will be a strong bias towards public transport,” he said.
The Gambling Board has previously stated that residents would be heard before a decision is made on the application for the casino licence.
Sun International Limited has applied to the board to have its casino licence transferred from Morula Casino near Mabopane, to Time Square at Menlyn Maine.
The Pretoria News has previously reported that a group of 22 residents’ associations and interest groups, known collectively as the Joint Action Group, had expressed dissatisfaction with the Tshwane Metro Council about what it called the “underhanded” ways in which the municipality had dealt with the Menlyn Node Spatial Development of 2012, and developments in the area.
Sun International has advertised that it wants to transfer its casino licence from Morula to Menlyn Maine as part of a R3 billion entertainment complex development.
The casino will have 3 000 slot machines and 100 gaming tables – making it bigger than casinos at Montecasino and Emperor’s Palace in Joburg, and should the licence be granted, it would be completed in three years.
The council’s Strategic Land Development Tribunal has already approved the removal of restrictive conditions and the amendment of the city’s town-planning scheme, and rezoned a number of properties which were previously residential to allow for a place of entertainment.
The report was expected to be tabled before the council’s regular meeting yesterday, but this did not happen.
It is not clear when the report will be tabled before council.
The planned development of Time Square on the corner of Corobay and Aramist streets, on land which will be transferred from MenCo by Sun International for R22 million, will operate with a casino licence transferred from Morula Sun, a casino which has been adversely affected by the number of new casinos in Gauteng. - Pretoria News