Durban - BISLEY residents in Pietermaritzburg are up in arms over plans by the Msunduzi Municipality to build more than a hundreds homes for military veterans in the area.
The community said that they were not officially informed or consulted about the development by the municipality.
They said they had since found out that it would comprise 103 housing units.
Nicholas Arokiam, chairperson of the Bisley Residents and Ratepayers Association, said they were shocked to learn via notices that a development was going up in the area.
“We saw a notice stating that community members who would like to object to the project should come forward, even the environmental impact assessment has been done,” he said
He said the municipality had not given any commitment that its infrastructure, water and electricity, already under strain and plagued by outages, would be upgraded to accommodate the development.
In a public letter of complaint, the ratepayers said: “We appreciate the sacrifices made by the war veterans as well as their invaluable contribution they made during the Struggle for an equal and united South Africa.
“We do not object to the establishment of a nurturing and caring environment for those veterans who deserve and have our deepest thanks. We do, however, object to the extreme disregard the municipality and its agents have shown in involving us in a decision that will impact us for decades to come.
“To the best of our knowledge, no social impact study has been done. No community meetings were held to discuss the matter with us, allowing us the opportunity to ask questions and to understand the vision for the project.”
DA councillor Sibongiseni Majola said they could not comment on the matter as they were not aware of any planned development in the Bisley area.
ACDP councillor Rienus Niemand said the military veterans have been engaged in a number of illegal activities in the city, including the hijacking of buildings.
He said the group should account for their prior criminal acts before the city can deal with them
The municipality said the project had been in the planning phase for the past four years. It said the site in question would be developed in accordance with the Msunduzi Town Planning Scheme and all processes would be carried out with active community participation as legislated in the Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act.
It added that in conjunction with the Department of Human Settlements (DoHS), it has since October 2016 initiated a programme to identify land for transfer to military veterans.
“Msunduzi is responsible for the identification and preparation of the land for transfer, while the military veterans will attend to the allocation process, with DoHS providing the financial support to prepare the land for transfer and the building of the top structures,” it said.
The Mercury