THE City has refused to confirm or deny whether they are buying land within the Philippi Horticultural Area (PHA).
Activists opposed to commercial development on the PHA have alleged that the City is attempting to buy portions of the valuable land, citing minutes of a spatial planning, environment and land use management committee meeting on September 9 last year.
Contained in the minutes, department of planning and building development management official Jaco van der Westhuizen said that “Council had already commenced negotiations with regard to the purchase of land to the west of the development on the Strandfontein Road side”.
City spokesperson Priya Reddy said the City is in the process of exploring “various options” to find sustainable solutions for the Philippi area that can strike the right balance of maximising the agricultural potential of the area while “responding to the broader urbanisation demands placed on the City”.
“The City has recently engaged the services of the Western Cape Economic Development Partnership in running a partnering project with the City in the broader Philippi area, so that a vision and strategy can be developed over the next year that will maximise the area’s potential for economic development, job creation, agriculture and housing,” she said.
The PHA Food and Farming Campaign says it is in the interests of the City to be open and honest in their engagements with the citizens of Cape Town.
Campaign spokesperson Nazeer Sonday said the City’s refusal to deny or acknowledge is telling.
“What will they tell the public protector when compelled to; that they won’t willingly declare to those who live in the PHA and the citizens of Cape Town?” he asked.
Sonday said, as elected administrators of the City, the officials are obliged to be accountable.
“We are enquiring specifically – and they know it – about specific processes that have been under way for the last seven years. Not about future ‘consultation processes’ about which we know nothing,” he said.
Reddy said there are currently three major private sector land use rezoning applications being processed by the City in the PHA area, two by Uvest Property Group and another one by Oaklands City Development Company.
Recently, several civic and ratepayer associations wrote to provincial and local authorities objecting to the Oakland City development – by company Rapicorp 122 – they say will threaten one of Cape Town’s largest aquifers.
“None of these have been considered by the relevant committees of council yet and therefore none are on appeal at this point in time,” she said.
The Schaapkraal Civic and Environmental Association has also resubmitted a request for the public protector to investigate the development decisions on the PHA.