Floors residents have strongly opposed a R300 million development earmarked for low-cost housing in the area.
RESIDENTS of Floors in Kimberley have strongly opposed a R300 million development earmarked for low-cost housing in the area.
Community members said that the construction of 720 social housing units, which is earmarked to kick off later this year, will keep residents in the area in an impoverished state and that the units will become a breeding ground for various social-ills such as drug dealing, prostitution and other criminal activities.
They further stated that the land was in the past identified as a green zone by Sol Plaatje Municipality, which prohibited the purchasing of any part of the land and also prohibited any construction on it.
This follows after directors from AfriKhaya managed to secure the purchase of a stretch of land, from Recreation Road to Farm Road, for the construction of what they termed “upmarket social housing apartments”.
Two of the directors of AfriKhaya, Ivan Steenkamp and Gordon Africa, during an exclusive interview with the DFA, explained that they had to adhere to strict regulations of the Social Housing Regulatory Authority (SHRA) in order to be obtain a licence to construct the apartments.
Africa said they want to provide safe and secure low-cost housing to the middle class in the Floors and Colville areas and the greater parts of Kimberley.
“We are not planning on building flats, but upmarket apartments. The property will be gated and there will be security on the premises 24 hours each day. This plan has not just landed on us, but it took years of work including securing the required paperwork in order to start with the project. We made an application for the land to Sol Plaatje Municipality in 2006.
“There was a long list of regulations from SHRA that we had to ensure that we adhere to. According to SHRA, there are many regulations and criteria that first need to be met in order to be granted a licence to construct low-cost housing. One of the criteria we had to meet was to ensure that the rights for the development will be in a restructuring zone, meaning that the apartments need to be close to a school, transport zone and close to a police station.
“That stretch of land made it ideal for the construction of low-cost housing. This development will afford residents who are deemed to be ‘too rich’ to secure a RDP house and then on the other hand ‘too poor’ to secure a bond from the bank, an opportunity to stay in a safe and affordable residential complex,” said Africa.
Africa added that although the land was purchased from Sol Plaatje Municipality, the units will not be the property of the municipality.
“We bought the land from the municipality therefore we are the rightful owners of the land as well as the development that will be constructed. AfriKhaya will be the landlord and not the municipality. As AfriKhaya, we will be responsible for the maintenance of the units.
“The tenants who will be staying in these units also need to bear in mind that the units will never be up for sale to any tenant, regardless of the number of years they have occupied the unit. The units are solely for rental purposes,” he said.
Steenkamp said, contrary to what residents in the area believe, the units will boost the area.
“We are bringing Sandton apartments to Floors. This project is costly and we would not want to see it turn into a hive for criminal activity. We will forfeit our licence from SHRA should that happen. We will cater to people who fall within the R3 501 and R22 000 salary bracket. There will be bachelor and two-bedroomed units that will be available at an affordable rental price as this will be a social housing project.
“We will also install JoJo tanks on the premise as well as make use of renewable energy to ensure our tenants have access to water and electricity at all times, even though the city or country might experience interruptions in the supply of water and electricity,” said Steenkamp.
He added that there will be a rigorous screening process prior to tenants being issued with rental contracts.
“We will not just give a key and rental contract to anyone without checking their application documents. We also will not allow tenants to run small businesses on the premises or from their apartments. We will establish a committee that will ensure that tenants adhere to the rules of the complex and that there are no illegal practices being conducted on the premises.
“Through the screening of each tenant, we also want to avoid double-dipping, meaning people who already own a property will not be able to rent one of our units while they are renting out their own homes.”
Steenkamp added that they also aim to create employment and to develop residents in the area.
“We want to give residents employment opportunities during the construction phase and also want to assist with other local projects. There are social projects in the community we have identified where we want to assist,” he said.
Community members, however, were not convinced that the development will be a positive injection for the area.
They accused the developers of painting a colourful picture and trying to leave the community with the problems.
“We have more than 750 petitions from residents who are opposed to this development. We started the petition back in 2016 when we got news of the development. We have written several letters to the municipality as well as the Department of Co-operative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs regarding this matter.
“The developers call it ‘apartments’ but that is just a fancy name for blocks of flats. Many residents have over the years applied to purchase the land, but their applications were denied. We were told at the time that the land is a green zone and no development can take place on it.
“Also, we were informed by municipal officials that the underground sewage and water systems will be under tremendous pressure should any houses be constructed on that land. How will that matter be addressed when the development of hundreds of units is in the pipeline? How come the municipality granted the application to a private company so easily?
“Nobody has ever approached the municipality with the intent to get the land for free, we were willing to buy it. Plus, if the residents in this area wanted the land for free, how come nobody ever erected a shanty or any illegal structure on that land. We hear of so many land invasions in the city, but this stretch of land has conveniently escaped invasion,” community members said.
“We would have never let the opportunity to own the land slip through our fingers had we not been informed that it is a green zone. Most residents have been staying in this area for more than 60 years and were never afforded the opportunity to own that land, There is no way that Sol Plaatje can state that none of the residents in Floors have ever shown interest in that land.”
They said the development will leave the community with various social-ills.
“The directors of AfriKhaya, of which one is a former teacher and the other one a former high-ranking police member, are very aware of what social-ills the construction will come with. We already have youths struggling with drug addiction living in this community. There are also no recreational opportunities for the youth and members of the communities.
“This development will increase the incidents of drug abuse, prostitution and human trafficking as well as house burglaries. The investors should rather use their millions to uplift the community by investing it in recreational programmes for the community instead of trying to make profit from the rental units.
“Our people also do not need temporary jobs, but a permanent solution to the high rate of unemployment. Let us first eradicate the current problems we face in the community before we allow people to come and fill their pockets with the little money we have,” they said.
Residents also accused the municipality of not conducting its duties in the area.
“That stretch of land is filled with overgrown grass. We had many criminal incidents that occurred on that land. Despite several complaints, the municipality never ever attempted to cut the grass or clean that land. We are certain that they sold that land for next to nothing given the state that it is in. Our people had been subjected to horrible living conditions all these years and now the land is just sold to private developers who do not even stay in this community,” they said.
The Sol Plaatje municipal spokesperson, Thoko Riet, said all processes were followed during the sale of the land and rejected statements that the land is a green zone.
“There were several applications for the land received, but they were objected to by council. AfriKhaya made an application for social housing and it was approved due to the lack of social housing in the Sol Plaatje municipal area. The deed of sale has been signed and has been handed over to our conveyors for transfer.
“The land was out on tender and the municipality did put a notice stating that anyone can object to the tender at the Northern Cape High Court. All specialist studies were done by the Department of Environmental Affairs, who also supports the fact that the proposed area does not constitute as indigenous vegetation in terms of the Natural Environment Management Act.
“Indigenous vegetation refers to vegetation consisting of indigenous plant species occurring naturally in an area, regardless of the level of alien infestation and where the topsoil had not been lawfully disturbed during the preceding years,” Riet said.
