Civil society groups are on the verge of filing for an interdict to halt the construction of an office block on Chapman’s Peak Drive.
UCT environmental law professor Jan Glazewski said on Tuesday the process leading to the construction of the luxury office block and toll plaza on Chapman’s Peak appeared to be “seriously flawed”.
Construction got under way on Monday. But Glazewski, a professor at the Institute of Marine & Environmental Law at UCT, who is also a member of the Table Mountain National Park Forum (TMPF), a body set up about eight years ago to act as an adviser and link between the public and SANParks, said: “It appears that the proposed construction of an office block on Chapman’s Peak is flawed on two related grounds.
“SANParks, the custodian of protected areas throughout the country, is required to undertake certain legal procedures set out in the Protected Areas Act prior to excising land from a national park, in this case the Table Mountain National Park.”
Civil society groups have been opposing the construction of a toll plaza for years with their latest fight being against construction of a two-storey building on the mountain.
David Mabunda, the chief executive of SANParks, said earlier SANParks was still in the process of de-proclaiming the land.
But Glazewski said the law required comprehensive public consultation with interested and affected parties, including TMPF, before embarking on such an initiative.
“I have been on the forum for five years and to the best of my knowledge the issues of an office block or the excising of land from the park has not been brought to the forum for consideration,” he said.
For these reasons, he said: “There are grounds for seeking a temporary interdict to put at least a temporary halt to the development proposal. This would serve to enable further investigation into the issue, the airing of conflicting views and hopefully the reaching of a compromise and a satisfactory resolution of the various issues.”
The Hout Bay Residents’ Association (HBRA), the Civil Rights Action Group and other residents said they were never consulted about an office block on SANParks land and opposed the plan.
HBRA chairman Len Swimmer said the association agreed 100 percent with Glazewski.
He said these were the grounds for an interdict they were investigating with their legal team.
TMPF acting chairman Greg Mosley, said they had quarterly meetings with SANParks and said that, while toll plaza plans had been presented to the public, an office block was never mentioned.
“This issue should’ve been raised because they should’ve known it would be a big issue. This whole situation has been handled very badly.
“If there has not been public participation on the office block then they should have it now. Quite frankly this is a mess,” he said.
Mosley added: “They can say they have had public participation but there is so much opposition to this, so even if they did consult people then they did not listen.
“SANParks does not own the land. It belongs to the people of South Africa and they have not had a chance to have their real say on the Chapman’s Peak debacle.”
Approached for comment, Ray Thakuli, the general manager for media relations at SANParks, said: “We are also an interested and affected party and we are directing all enquiries to the Western Cape Department of Public Works and Transport.”
Numerous attempts to reach Transport and Public Works MEC Robin Carlisle were unsuccessful.
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