A government plan to redress forced removals under apartheid is about to hit one of the country’s most expensive suburbs.
Residents of Constantia in Cape Town may finally have to welcome some not so well-heeled neighbours as plans to build about 750 houses and triple-storey flats for low-and middle-income families start to take shape.
This is almost 50 years after the Group Areas Act led to the forced removal of thousands of families from their homes in areas such as District Six, Claremont and Constantia in Cape Town, Cato Manor in Durban and Sophiatown in Johannesburg.
Land claimants are among scores of families set to benefit from a Western Cape government project to house people closer to economic hubs.
Officially known as the Comprehensive Plan for the Development of Integrated Human Settlement, the project is also known as Breaking New Ground, said national housing spokesman Ndivhuwo Mabaya.
“We want domestic workers to be able to walk to work, so they don’t have to wake up at 5am, and instead have time to spend with their families. It has a huge social impact.”
Since the plan was unveiled in 2004, about 1.2 million houses have been built around the country in developments comprising three tiers of homes — bonded, rental and for those living in informal settlements.
The government is busy with some of these housing projects at Cosmo City in Randburg and Olievenhoutbosch in Centurion, Bendor in Limpopo, Zanemvula in Port Elizabeth and hundreds more around the country.
“The plan is so successful that private developers are also using the format,” Mabaya said.
Developed by the eLan Group, the planned Blythedale Coastal Resort in KwaZulu-Natal has a “social housing” component, with 1300 of the 5000 homes valued at between R45000 and R350000. Residents will share facilities such as a golf course and swimming pools.
But for 124 Constantia land claimants, a settlement is still some way off. Today, the area where Zainap and Adielah Solomon’s house stood is used as a refuse collection site, and the elderly sisters, who now live in Manenberg, sell jam to survive.
A vacant hectare of land in Upper Constantia costs about R11-million, according to estate agent, Pam Golding Properties.
The proposed provincial government housing developments at Firgrove and Sweet Valley would be just a few kilometres from La Colombe, voted Africa’s Best Restaurant, and Groot Constantia, South Africa’s oldest wine farm.
According to the South African Property Transfer Guide, High Constantia ranked the second-most expensive suburb in the country, based on the value of property sales in 2008. Sales in excess of R19-million were excluded, for a more accurate view of the overall residential market.
Guinea Fowl Crescent in Silverhurst, Constantia, achieved two of the top sales in the area last year — R17.5-million and R34-million — but the government’s proposed houses will be valued at just R500 000. They will be built on stands almost six times smaller than the suburb’s minimum plot size of 1350m².
Two layouts have been proposed, with 53 and 55 residential dwellings to a hectare, with at least 140 single-storey homes each built on 200m² plots, and more than 100 mixed-type units in triple-storey flats.
Constantia residents are opposing the plans and have expressed concern about traffic, urban design, parking, fauna and flora, crime, jobs and squatters.
“We are worried about the impact of the development on our nomination as a World Heritage Site,” said Constantia Property Owners’ Association vice-chairman Joan Hemming.
At a meeting last year, one of the proposals tabled was that the land be sold at market value and the money used to build the development “in an area of similar socioeconomic profile”.
But for the land claimants, the matter is simple: “We lived there before you did.”
Uthmaan Rhoda, vice-chairman of the Constantia Restitution Beneficiaries’ Trust, said the Constantia Property Owners’ Association’s arguments against the development were “discussions to have afterwards”.
“You inherited the land from people who loved it. People were kicked out of their four-bedroom homes and forced to move into tiny flats. Some people had to sell their lounge suites or four-poster beds because they could not fit into the houses they were forced to live in.”
Rhoda added that “bureaucracy and politics” had held up the process. “The Constantia Property Owners’ (Association) and other residents are under the misguided opinion that we are going to build low-income housing in their posh area. We don’t want high density.”
Rather than crowded flats, the claimants wanted something similar to a security complex in which residents could draw the maximum benefit from the land, said Rhoda.
Land claimants, along with low-and middle-income residents, would get houses in the proposed developments. They would include people on the government housing list, but final details of who will qualify for ownership are yet to be announced.
One Constantia resident, who asked not to be named, does not think the development will affect the value of his property.
“It’s a reality of South Africa. As long as the road infrastructure is maintained, I don’t think we have a right to say no,” he said.
The Constantia Hills Residents’ Association believes the proposal is a “pre-election ploy” and wants a full environmental impact assessment. - The Times
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