Cape Town - Valuable Sea Point land - earmarked for development to benefit the families of those forcibly removed from the area under the Group Areas Act - is to be sold as a vacant lot to settle a R14 million debt.
The sale will mark the end of a 13-year battle to honour a land restitution agreement between the beneficiaries, the City of Cape Town and the Department of Land Affairs that was hailed as “groundbreaking” when it was signed in 2001.
“It is a sad day, that the land restitution claim has come to this,” said mayor Patricia de Lille.
Wednesday marks the centenary of the Natives’ Land Act of 1913, the precursor to legislation that stripped black, coloured and Indian people of their property rights.
As the city celebrates its triumphs in dealing with land claims and commits itself to working with other spheres of government to fast-track other outstanding claims, the mayoral committee has had to accept a decision by the Tramway Trust, established in 1996 to represent those families who were evicted from their homes in the 1960s, to give up their fight for land.
The Tramway Trust has revealed that it owes Investec Bank R14m because it could not honour an agreement to develop the land as an upmarket residential complex.
Mayco member for safety and security JP Smith said the sale was “disappointing after the amount of work that went into (the restitution)”. Smith, who was ward councillor for the area, has been closely involved with the process for more than 10 years.
“We went to great lengths to ensure that the land was made available. This incredibly valuable parcel of land was given to the claimants for free. Now it has all come to nought.”
He said plans to cross-subsidise a development that would have been beneficial to the claimants “never came to fruition because of internal politics”. Smith said only one or two of the original claimants were still alive.
“The rest are punch-drunk from all the bureaucracy involved and they just want to settle.”
Smith said several deals fell through because the greed of some claimants who wanted to wait for a better deal.
People’s Post reported last year that the trust was divided over an alternative deal that involved the land being swopped for two blocks of flats in Muizenberg. It was believed that these buildings were on a wetland and were not an ideal alternative.
Smith said the Tramway Park land would now be sold by the trust for development. He said the city did not have any legal rights over the land since it was handed over in 2001. There are no reversionary clauses in the settlement agreement that prevent the trust from approaching the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform to sell the land.
The Tramway restitution was one of city’s land claim success stories. When Sea Point was proclaimed a whites-only suburb in the 60s, the families were forcibly relocated to the Cape Flats. The city bought the property in 1964 and demolished the cottages.
The trust collectively lodged a land claim, and in 2001, the city gave it a piece of land on the corner of Kings and Tramway roads in Sea Point, at no cost. Seventy one of the claimants accepted compensation of R17 500, while 34 claimants sought to benefit from the development of erf 1225.
The initial plan was to construct 42 single residential erven. As most of the beneficiaries were unable to build their own houses, and the trust was unable to raise the required funds, it sought professional advice to help develop the land. The claimants were bound by their restitution agreement to develop the land within 48 months.
According to a report by Pogiso Molapo of the city’s human settlements directorate, the trustees were “ill-advised” about their land and, in 2007, the directorate was informed that a cross-subsidisation model would better suit their needs. It was recommended that the development should be upgraded to 87 units so some of them could be sold.
One of the proposals mooted was for an upmarket residential development, called The Orchards, with 75 luxury apartments priced between R2.5m and R12m. The trust was to have owned 15 units, of which 10 would be sold and the proceeds shared among the claimants. It was hoped that this would serve as a “blueprint” for future restitution developments.
The first sods of this development were turned, with much fanfare, in May 2011. But to date, nothing has been developed on the site.
Molapo said the trust borrowed R200m from Investec for this development plan. But this also flopped, again because some claimants pulled out of the deal in the hopes of securing something better. The trust now owes the bank R14m.
Smith said he was bothered by the “hint of impropriety” that claimants might have missed out on deals because of greed. Although the claimants would have been able to sell their units, if the residential development had got off the ground, the decision to just sell the land outright was “not in the spirit” in which the land was given to them.
* Chairman of the Tramway Road Community Trust, Leonard Lopes, could not be reached for comment.
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