Cape Town - The Racing Park Development Owners’ Association (RPDOA) has failed in its court bid to get a land transfer between Cape Killarney Property Investments (CKPI) and the Housing Development Agency (HDA) declared invalid and reversed.
The development at issue exists on formerly agricultural land that was subdivided for development as an industrial estate.
The RPDOA, which is a property owners’ association, brought the suit against the CKPI, which was the developer of the subdivided land, and wanted the deal reversed claiming that its constitution did not allow for the selling or transfer of an erf within the park without its written consent.
The HDA, purchased part of the subdivided land from the CKPI and is currently in the process of applying for the rezoning of such land for housing development from general industry to mixed use.
The RPDOA claims that in August 2019, the CKPI sold the disputed erven to the HDA without the RPDOA’s written consent and had infringed its rights by doing so.
In his ruling Judge Ashley Binns-Ward said: “Unless resultant prejudice, actual or potential, can be shown by the claimant, there is no viable basis to prosecute it.”
The judge said: “The RPDOA claims allege the infringement of a right, but they do not contain any allegation of resultant harm. And certainly not any that would support the interdict requested. Therefore the application is dismissed with costs.”
This sale of the land is itself a controversial issue which was the subject of a meeting of the provincial Scopa in June last year.
During that meeting Good Party MPL Brett Herron briefed the committee on the issue of a report alleging the land was purchased at an inflated price by the provincial department of Human Settlements, the City and the HDA.
Herron also alleged there had been undue political influence in the purchase.
Commenting on the judgment yesterday, Herron said: “The judgment is a decision on an interlocutory matter in the litigation which is still before the courts and there is no end in sight.
“The conceptualisation of the project and the purchase of this over-priced and unusable industrial land for a housing project, including a wetland, is a debacle born out of a resistance to integration,” said Herron.
Cape Argus