Pretoria - MMC for Housing and Human Settlements, Mpho Mehlape-Zimu, has quashed claims that residents in Salvokop were kept in the dark about a planned multibillion-rand project to incorporate their area into the Pretoria CBD.
She said it was surprising that people under the umbrella of the Tshwane Civic Movement (TCM) complained that residents were not informed about the project after they had a meeting with her and other stakeholders.
TCM chairperson Khomotso Sephelle this week expressed unhappiness that residents knew little about the looming development called the Salvokop Precinct Development Project.
According to him, many residents feared their houses would be demolished to make way for the construction of four government department offices.
Mehlape-Zimu said it was untrue that the government intended to bulldoze people’s homes, saying it was not part of the plan.
According to her, the plan included the building of low-cost houses for the locals and a study was under way to look into their socio-economic status.
“Because we are going to be building low-cost houses, a socio-economic study will be conducted for the people who will benefit. We can’t build houses and expect people to pay R10 000 while they can't afford it," she said.
She added that those who griped about the development were people renting out flats and making profits out of them.
“The problem is with the people who are renting some houses there. It is their political problem and I am not going to get involved in that,” Mehlape-Zimu said.
As far as she was concerned, all spheres of government, private funders, community members and other stakeholders were in agreement that the project must go ahead.
That sentiment, she said, was shared in a community meeting hosted on November 20 in Salvokop.
Those in attendance were city officials, public works and infrastructure officials and the German embassy funding the project.
“We are on the same page with the residents. The national government said we will include retail parks and residential units. There is nowhere it said people’s houses are going to be demolished. The residents said we can go ahead with the project,” she said.
The R18 billion project was first announced last year by the Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure, Patricia de Lille, who said it would include the building of four government department offices.
Local councillor Fortune Mampuru said the land earmarked for the project, bought from Transnet for R79 million, was empty and unoccupied.
The government had already started a tender process to hire a contractor to install bulk services such as water reticulation infrastructure, roads and electrification.
Mampuru lashed out at the TCM, saying they were part of the so-called business forum notorious for demanding 30% shares from every major project across the city.
Pretoria News
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