Oakford row: owner responds to critics

Durban05082013. Oakford school closed.

Durban05082013. Oakford school closed.

Published Aug 8, 2013

Share

Durban - A landowner accused of denying pupils access to a school situated on his property has denied the claim, saying the children were being used by the community for its own ends.

Director of Oakford Priory Investments Marius Maritz responded on Wednesday to complaints by parents whose children attend Oakford Primary School in Verulam.

A legal notice has also been served on the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education for arrears in rates and taxes, water, electricity and rent.

The school’s governing body, parents and community claim pupils were being denied access to the school via the main entrance and were forced to use an alternative access road.

They said this was dangerous because they would have to walk through isolated sugar cane fields.

Maritz said the instruction to use the alternative route was deemed necessary by the Department of Water Affairs and not the landowner.

“Now, after the Department of Water Affairs has spent a few million rand in (the) upgrading and construction of such new access road, the school community refuses to use that road.”

The main access road was closed at the start of the school term, then reopened for a couple of weeks, but closed again on Tuesday.

Oakford Primary, which has more than 900 pupils, and the Sacred Heart girls’ boarding school are situated on the land the Maritz company bought in 2009.

He said the department had undertaken an environmental impact study related to the raising of the Hazelmere Dam wall.

A decision was taken as a result to build a proper gravel road, which was completed last month, he said.

Maritz said an agreement was made to compensate his company for use of the access road until the alternative road was completed.

The amount of R4.2 million including rates and taxes, water, electricity and rent priced at R40 a pupil per year, was still outstanding, he said.

“Since becoming the owner, the access road (among other things) was challenged by the Department of Education,” he said, explaining however that he was bound by the provisions of the lease agreement.

Maritz said an arbitration process was later entered into, the outcome of which was that part of the existing road could only be used as an interim measure until the completion of the alternative gravel road.

He said the decision was confirmed on appeal.

The sale of the property to Oakford Priory Investments in 2009 was subject to two lease agreements of indefinite time periods with the education department, in terms of the Schools Act.

Maritz said he’d been threatened on numerous occasions by the community and local chief who claimed the land belonged to them.

He said their intent was “to deny the legitimate landowner the opportunity to develop the property”.

“It is now four years later, during which there is a delay in redeveloping the property at tremendous cost to the landowner,” he said.

“There is no doubt that the community is using the children and their schooling as leverage, which should never be the case.”

Because of the uncertainty of the property’s future, Maritz said he did not have any plans for the property as yet.

Maritz said the education department had agreed that they had to comply with the arbitration appeal decision regarding the access route to be used by the pupils.

“Where the department has entered into negotiations in good faith, it seems that it is the school community which has unrealistic expectations, and is not seeking solutions to the problem,” he said.

Maritz said one alternative provided by the department was to relocate the schools to nearby land “under control of the surrounding community”.

Daily News

Related Topics: