Residents angered at housing initiative

RESIDENTS of Delft in the Western Cape have told The Times that the government’s pilot housing initiative, the N2 Gateway Project, is “kak and pathetic”.

They complained that they had been living in small one-bedroom steel units for more than a year.

The 1300 units at the Symphony Way temporary relocation area in Delft were meant to be the first step to proper housing.

Residents renamed it “Blikkiesdorp” because their homes are made only of corrugated iron.

The pilot housing project was launched in 2006 and is to be used as a benchmark for the rest of the country. But residents said service delivery at the location remained dismal.

Security officer Deno Koekemoer, his unemployed wife and nine- year-old son share an outside toilet and tap with three other households. It is the same for all other residents.

“We waited for more than a year for electricity. We only got it two weeks ago. We used candles, paraffin lamps, gas stoves and made fires,” said Koekemoer.

Koekemoer said the communal toilet’s tap had been stolen by “tik [methamphetamine] addicts” and its water pipes were leaking.

“The tik addicts stole the tap three months ago and I told the municipality. It’s still not fixed.

“They have a don’t-care attitude. They tell us: ‘Just be grateful because it’s free’,” Koekemoer said

“We applied for a house and then they gave us this. There is a lot of crime here because of drugs and gangsters.”

Dalene Peters, who has lived at Symphony Way for 16 months with her husband, a construction worker, and their toddlers, said the “houses are very cold”.

“We can’t always afford electricity because when it rains my husband doesn’t have work,” she said.

Many residents have complained about overcrowding.

- The Times

From Housing to Settlement

Service delivery protests are back, this time accompanied by violence. Where is the promised housing and "services" the protestors want to know. The recently re-elected ANC has rebranded the Department of Housing as the Department of Human Settlements having adopted the "concept of human settlements" at Polokwane.

“Housing is not just about building houses. It is also about transforming our residential areas and building communities with closer access to work and social amenities, including sports and recreation facilities,” - President Jacob Zuma

The enigmatic Tokyo Sexwale was duly appointed as Minister of Human Settlements:
"We lived in poverty and we were all subjected to the humiliation which the whites imposed upon the blacks. We lived in the same typical 'matchbox' houses; we were continually aware that there was not enough money available to meet our needs for food, clothing and education; and when we went into town and saw the relative luxury in which white people lived, this made an indelible impression on our young minds..."

The impression was indelible and Tokyo Sexwale proceeded to hog a massive slice of the BEE cake for himself. He arguably knows absolutely very little about the value for money. No other South African has spent R56 million on a single family home. Spending that much money on a house is evidence of losing touch with reality. No one else will say it: "The man got ripped off... the emperor has no clothes."

So how then are we going to house the shackdwelling millions? It turns out we are not! ("beyond Housing" in Engineering News)

Human Settlements Portfolio Committee chairperson Beauty Dambuza says that government is moving away from building houses to “building communities”. (Building communities involves the provision of services and public space, which should be part of any development regardless. The feel good factor and novelty of having facilities will hopefully placate the souls disappointed by not getting the house they were promised)

“A human settlement is a labour-based infrastructure development that can make an important contribution to measures to [deal with] unemployment. The integrated infrastructure provision also assists in driving rural, urban and human settlement development, facilitated by an enhanced strategy for land acquisition, including the acquisition of strategically located and developed sites in urban households, as well as in rural areas, through the disposal of State-owned land . . . and the Housing Development Agency has been established to acquire land for human settlements.” THERE YOU GO... EVERYTHING... AND NOTHING...

Protests are Mbeki’s fault, says Sexwale

Human settlements minister Tokyo Sexwale has blamed councillors elected during former President Thabo Mbeki’s administration for the latest wave of violent protests at service delivery.

Sexwale said people were not against President Jacob Zuma’s government, but against the municipalities aligned to the previous administration.

Sexwale said it was “inconceivable that people could revolt against Zuma’s government, which had been established just three months ago.

“There is a disconnect between us (leaders) and our people. This is quite clear. The people are not demonstrating against a three month-old government.

“They voted us into power three months ago. They are simply saying leaders in the past have done things wrong and they want to tell us.”

Sexwale did not mince his words, adding that “ this is a new administration, although we are a continuing government of the ANC. That is why Polokwane happened. We needed change”.

‘People are angry at municipalities aligned to former regime’

‘They are simply saying leaders in the past have done things wrong and they want to tell us’

‘(The) housing (department) has built 2.8 million houses. Housing is not a problem but poverty is’

He emphasised that people wanted the government to hear about the challenges they have had to face for a long time.

However, he warned the protesters that blockading roads, looting, and burning buildings “was not on and would not resolve the problems. It is not acceptable to use methods of violence to bring the message to us.”

He said he had been studying the situation in all areas where the violent protests had erupted, adding that many wanted jobs before houses.

“It is a fact that (the) housing (department) has built 2.8 million houses, whether good or bad. Housing is not a problem but poverty is.”

Sexwale said he visited Diepsloot informal settlement (in Gauteng) last week. “Most (of the people there) were clear that they did not want houses.”

There are 2000 informal settlements in the country and Sexwale said he intended to visit all of them.

“I want to go back to Diepsloot and sleep over with my officials to get to understand the problem. There has been a disconnect between them and the leaders, which has left our people at the hands of some unscrupulous mayors and councillors.”

Sexwale said that during his visit to Diepsloot, “a lot of people asked for jobs. People’s problems vary and are different. We cannot come with a one-size-fits-all strategy to resolve them.

“For instance, there is a man who runs a successful taxi business in Diepsloot who does not want to be moved but wants services like water, toilets and electricity in the area.”

Sexwale said other people had become landlords, owning about four shacks in their back yards and charging monthly rentals of R800.

“These are people who have to be moved because their houses are built on a sewage pipe but they are worried about their business. So do we destroy that economy or listen to them and plan accordingly?”

But he said human settlement was about more than housing. “The crisis now is about urbanisation, a challenge that was at some point going to catch up with the new South Africa. All metropolitan areas have had an influx of people looking for wealth.”

He explained that, as was the case worldwide, many people had left rural areas and settled in places where there was a lack of basic services because they wanted to live in urban areas and look for work.

Sexwale said the problem had been compounded by the global recession, when the economy needed 6% growth.

“The global downturn has put more pressure on us.”

- The Times

More service delivery protests in the Western Cape

Western Cape police officials have opened a case of public violence following protest action in Ashton.

An estimated 200 demonstrators burnt tyres on the outskirts of the Karoo town on Thursday.

Residents living in an informal settlement in the town are disgruntled about the lack of housing and slow delivery of basic services.

Police fired rubber bullets to disperse the protestors.

Meanwhile, the Knysna municipality says it will take longer than anticipated to address the housing backlog in the tourist town due to a lack of funds.

Residents of the Hlalani informal settlement have accused the council of failing them.

On Wednesday, they protested outside their local municipal offices, demanding houses and electricity.

Knysna Mayor Eleanore Bouw-Spies says they received R31 million for housing from the province this year.

“Whatever housing projects we undertake must come from that money, and what we do as the council is add a significant amount to that from our own coffers," says Bouw-Spies.

- Eyewitness News

The Outrage of South Africa's Poor Threatens Their President

South African President Jacob Zuma has a problem: the very underclass that swept him into office last April on his promise to deliver them a better life have run out of patience, and they're venting their outrage on the streets. Little more than a year after the country's impoverished black townships erupted in a wave of violence directed at migrants from neighboring African countries, tires are once again burning on the streets as crowds protesting the lack of resources in their communities clash with police in images sometimes reminiscent of the apartheid era. Recent weeks have seen a wave of angry and at times violent protests and strikes break out across the country. First, construction workers building stadiums for next year's FIFA Soccer World Cup — the world's most popular sporting event — walked off the job demanding higher wages. This week, it was the turn of those with no jobs, as unemployed people living in squatter camps went on a rampage, stoning vehicles, destroying buildings and looting stores to vent their anger over lack of jobs, houses and basic services like sanitation and electricity. (See TIME's look at the life of Nelson Mandela.)

As the global economic downturn drags South Africa into its first recession since the end of apartheid, such protests are likely to escalate, posing an acute dilemma for the President. Zuma catapulted himself into the leadership of the African National Congress (ANC) and then the presidency by championing the interests of those left behind by the market-friendly economic policies of his predecessor, Thabo Mbeki. Now those who elected Zuma are demanding that he deliver on his promises, as the trade unions that played a key role in his power play within the ANC demand payback, and the fury of the economically marginalized escalates. But the recession and South Africa's potentially vulnerable position in international capital markets give Zuma little room to stray from Mbeki's policies.

The trade unions are certainly feeling empowered. After a weeklong work stoppage on facilities being built for the World Cup — a move which grabbed international headlines and frayed nerves in a country fearful of the consequences of falling short in its moment of global prestige as the first African country to host the tournament — construction workers negotiated a 12% wage increase. Their success is likely to spur unions in other key sectors of the economy to follow suit. Teachers, miners and doctors have also recently staged strikes, and retail workers are about to do the same. But for those suffering without jobs, wreaking havoc seems to be the only path to redress. (See pictures of South Africa, 15 years after apartheid.)

In the port city of Durban on July 22, 94 members of a group called the South African Unemployed People's Movement, most of them older women, were arrested after they stormed into supermarkets and grabbed food off the shelves. "This is just the tip of the iceberg, and I myself cannot stop the people, because they are angry," the movement's chairwoman, Nozipho Mteshane, told the Star newspaper. The next day, as similar protests continued in areas around Johannesburg, the Western Cape and the northeastern province of Mpumalanga, the government warned that it would not tolerate further violence. "We are not going to allow anybody to use illegal means to achieve their objectives," the national minister for local government, Sicelo Shiceka, told a radio station.

Protests over the lack of services are an ongoing phenomenon that periodically flare up on a larger scale, say analysts, who view them as a symptom of the widespread despair felt by those who remain mired in poverty 15 years after the formal end of apartheid. Last year's wave of xenophobic attacks, which left 62 people dead, were fueled by many of the same long-standing grievances over unemployment and lack of housing. While the ANC points to its record of building 3 million new houses and delivering electricity, water and sanitation to rural areas, unemployment — officially at 23.5%, though experts say it is actually much higher — is rising, and some 8 million people still live in shacks.

The mood among the poor hasn't been helped by the fact that wealthier South Africans have so far escaped the brunt of the recession. And the anger may have been fueled by the fact that many of the same politicians whose job it is to speed up delivery of services to the poor are conspicuously flaunting their own wealth. Two Cabinet ministers have drawn fire in Parliament this month for splurging on luxury cars at taxpayers' expense.

Many of those starting to take to the streets now voted for the ANC but feel they have been forgotten by a government indifferent to their plight. And the government has allowed such sentiment to fester too long without adequately addressing it, says Hennie van Vuuren, head of the governance and corruption program at the Institute for Security Studies in Cape Town. "If anything, it was Thabo Mbeki's government that turned its back on these protests and did not address them," he told TIME. "You have this massive alienation taking place at the local level. People are taking to the streets because they feel there is no other way to get their voices heard." (See how South Africa is preparing for the 2010 World Cup.)

"The African National Congress has responded to the new surge in popular protest with the same patrician incomprehension under Jacob Zuma as it did under Thabo Mbeki," wrote Richard Pithouse, a politics lecturer at Rhodes University, in the Business Day newspaper. "It has not understood that people do not take to the streets against a police force as habitually brutal as ours without good cause. Government statements about the virtues of law and order, empty rhetoric about its willingness to engage and threats to ensure zero tolerance of 'anarchy' only compound the distance between the state and the faction of its people engaged in open rebellion."

Where Mbeki suffered politically for maintaining the aloof bearing of a philosopher king, Zuma's man-of-the-people story and his common touch allowed him to trounce his rival — but it will take him only so far. "It will take real leadership to engage with the problems in these communities, and that has been sorely lacking," says Van Vuuren. "[Zuma] was the candidate who said he wanted to engage better with citizens, and that he is fundamentally pro-poor and a man of the people. This is the moment he needs to be doing it." But translating his promises into policies that can restore economic growth and deliver jobs and services to the millions who desperately need them will require a lot more than a common touch.

- TIME

South Africa discontent spreads

Violence in South Africa's townships has spread as residents protest about what they say is a lack of basic services, such as water and housing.

Police have fired rubber bullets at demonstrators in Johannesburg, the Western Cape and the north-eastern region of Mpumalanga.

In Mpumalanga, there were reports of foreign-owned businesses being looted as foreigners sought police protection.

More than 100 people have been arrested during the past week.

The rising tensions in the townships have revived memories of xenophobic attacks on foreigners last year in which more than 60 people died.

ANALYSIS Jonah Fisher BBC News, Johannesburg What we are seeing is a combination of a series of different factors. South Africa is in the grip of its first recession for 20 years. People in the townships, the poorest people in South Africa, complain that after 15 years of ANC rule they still don't have basic housing, electricity or water. Jacob Zuma put service delivery at the heart of his election campaign and that's in part why he won a big mandate. But a lot of people look at the local level ANC and say they need to start delivering, and they will be looking to Mr Zuma to root out the corruption and nepotism which have prevented service delivery being expanded throughout South Africa.

The latest protests over service delivery come less than 100 days after Jacob Zuma took office as president, following a resounding election victory for the governing African National Congress (ANC).

They are a reminder of the impatience felt in the most deprived areas of the country, says BBC world affairs correspondent Peter Biles.

On Tuesday, police cars were stoned in Thokoza near Johannesburg during a demonstration about living conditions that turned violent.

Nearby township Diepsloot saw cars and houses being burnt last week in protest at plans to tear down makeshift shacks to make way for a sewage pipe.

Poverty pledge

President Jacob Zuma promised to improve service delivery when he came to power in May, and said fighting poverty was his priority, highlighting the huge economic and social challenges facing South Africa.

However, South Africa announced in June that it was facing its worst recession in 17 years.

Fifteen years after the ANC won its first election, more than one million South Africans still live in shacks, many without access to electricity or running water.

Township reports Foreigners live in fear Zuma's challenges as president

The gap between rich and poor is also wider than it was 15 years ago, our correspondent says.

The slow provision of replacement housing has long been controversial - nearly three million have been built, but the allocation has been prone to nepotism and corruption.

In addition, the global economic climate has banished any hope of South Africa maintaining record levels of economic growth, and reducing unemployment.

In the midst of this latest unrest, Mr Zuma is embarking upon a tour of the country to thank voters for returning the ANC to power in the elections last April.

Our correspondent says he will now be under even greater pressure to explain how the ANC is going to meet its plethora of election promises.

- BBC

Don't shoot the protestors....

Do not shoot at unarmed service delivery protesters, KwaZulu-Natal local government minister Willies Mchunu warned police on Wednesday.

"Pictures of elderly women and men with injuries sustained as a result of the use of rubber bullets, and sometimes live ammunition, only serve to cast a negative perception on our young democracy," Mchunu said in a statement. (You are making us LOOK bad... It has nothing to do with the PAIN AND SUFFERRRRRING)

Mchunu said he would meet Minister of Police Nathi Mthethwa and KwaZulu-Natal community safety minister Bheki "BLUE LIGHT" Cele to draw up a memorandum of understanding detailing how law enforcers should deal with such scenarios.

"We view these service delivery protests as voices of exclusion, as opposed to the voices of dissent.

"Our people are increasingly on the streets, not because it is fashionable to do so, but as a result of their perception that their voices are not finding expression in the public policy at the local level."

"I appeal to all those who are languishing in perpetual guilt for the way they have abused taxpayers' money to desist" -Mail and Guardian

Cope members being evicted and downgraded

Minister of Public Works Geoff Doidge was granted an order in the Cape High Court yesterday to serve notices on two Cope parliamentarians living in the Pelican Park parliamentary village to inform them that he intends evicting them from their homes.

After the court granted the order, Dennis Bloem and Bishop Lekoba Tolo were served notices by the Wynberg sheriff's office informing them that Doidge would go to court next month to get them evicted from the complex near Zeekoevlei.

They would be moved from their three-bedroomed houses, called Flamingo and Harrier, to smaller two-bedroomed houses, numbers 87 and 85 Pelican Park.

The reason they are to be evicted is because they resigned from the ANC.

Yesterday Bloem was defiant: "They informed me and Bishop Tolo that we were living here illegally, but we are still parliamentarians so we will challenge that eviction."

Bloem has lived in Pelican Park as an MP for 15 years. The village, he said, was originally built in the apartheid era to house the "Indian MPs" in the old tricameral parliament.

Court papers said when Bloem and Tolo had resigned from the ANC, they had lost their membership of the national assembly in March. They had also lost all the rights and privileges that went with that office, including the right to occupy houses in the Pelican Park parliamentary village. - from IOL

Delivery protests growing more political

SERVICE delivery protests have accelerated since April, in what may be an indication of growing impatience not long after the making of election campaign promises.

Winter has always been the peak protest season in SA. “Perhaps it’s because that’s when people are most uncomfortable,” says Karen Reese, an economist and co-founder of Municipal IQ, which monitors service delivery across municipalities.

Cape winters are particularly uncomfortable, accompanied by rain and misery, especially for shack dwellers. However, Anti-Privatisation Forum spokesman Dale McKinley feels it is wrong to believe that all protests are over lack of service, or that they come and go.

“Every single protest has been grouped under service delivery and that’s not true,” he says.

Some protests, he argues, may best be classified as “political protests” since they represent a demand for representation and accountability among local leaders.

“It’s not just about the delivery of an RDP house but goes deeper than that; it’s about who has a voice in this country,” McKinley says.

Problems may also occur when the state, in a desire to provide services quickly, neglects to consult widely enough, says Richard Pithouse, a politics lecturer at Rhodes University. Protests are complex and each must be treated on its merit.

In the past three months, demonstrations have broken out in settlements from Du Noon in Cape Town, Zeerust in the North West and Orange Farm in Gauteng.

Yesterday, police fired rubber bullets to disperse about 200 hostel dwellers in Thokoza on the East Rand. Unhappy with hostel renovations in particular, they threw stones, damaging several hostels. At least 17 people were arrested.

Reese believes that, unlike previous years, protests have become much more generalised. “Previously, service delivery protests were around specific issues, although you still have that and it often acts as the trigger,” she says.

Protests also seem to have become more violent, including looting and the stoning of cars . “It is of late an accelerating trend; it’s picking up momentum,” she says.

Earlier this month, two people died in Mpumalanga when marauding residents set fire to three councillors’ homes, including the home of Piet Retief mayor Mary Khumalo.

McKinley says violence is not about people going out “pro-actively” to destroy something. Instead, it normally reflects authorities’ hostility towards protesters’ grievances as well as a failure of policing.

“We must bear in mind that the state has also become more violent,” says Pithouse, arguing that in a democracy it is unacceptable for a demonstrator to die.

Municipal IQ says just over halfway through the year, 13 % of the major service delivery protests recorded since 2004 took place last year . It suggests that should the trend continue, the number of protests this year will exceed those of 2007 and last year and come close to the 2005 peak when 35 protests were recorded countrywide.

Rooted in SA’s struggle against apartheid, protests are hardly mindless outpourings of anger, says McKinley. “It’s an understanding of how power works,” he says. The poor, recognising their limitations in using democratic processes, rely on their collective strength.

McKinley says what the poor are demanding is quality leadership, something unlikely to happen until there is a serious political movement coming from the left. “What’s lacking is an organised voice of the poor and the working class,” he says.

Recent demonstrations appear to have been encouraged by the change of guard in the government, which portrayed itself as a champion of the poor. Pithouse says people take past promises very seriously.

“They see them as a contract between themselves and the state.”

Reese ascribes the protests to relative deprivation inherent when one municipal ward is better off than the neighbouring areas. Service protests are also an urban phenomenon, although Municipal IQ says there is a trend towards non-metro areas.

Last week, Co-operative Government and Traditional Affairs Minister Sicelo Shiceka blamed the South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco) for the latest protests in Mpumalanga and Diepsloot.

But Reese does not make much of the third force theory, suggesting instead a widening gap between expectations and capacity.

“If there is a third force, it is acting on valid concerns,” she says.

- BusinessDay - News worth Knowing

In 2005; I met with the NIA (National Intelligence Agency) who was investigating a 3rd force.

The housing situation is a glaring failure. The '3rd force' thing is a tired as the race card.

If matchbox houses propelled Tokyo Sexwale into political activism and guerrilla terrorism - what do you think living in a flooded or burning shack would do?

'Meet our service delivery demands, Plato'

Disgruntled informal settlement residents have given mayor Dan Plato two weeks to respond to their service delivery demands.

The residents, drawn from various communities in Khayelitsha and Macassar Village, on Monday marched from Keizersgracht Street to the City of Cape Town to demand, among other things, relocation to higher ground, as well as better housing and serviced land.

The march follows several service delivery protests which have flared across the Western Cape since April's general elections.

In song and dance, the protesters denounced the government and major political parties for ignoring their plight.

Council official Andile Mhlanga accepted memoranda on Plato's behalf as the mayor was busy.

"We live in flooding squatter camps. We struggle to survive. We have no toilets," said Mzwanele Biko, 25, of TT section in Khayelitsha.

He said he had migrated from the Eastern Cape 10 years ago hoping to "improve my life... But nothing has happened, I have no job."

Another TT section resident, Zandile Maliwa, 45, a father of four, said: "Rubbish is not collected. The whole community share two water taps."

Vuyani Ntontela, 42, who lives in UT section in Khayelitsha, said there were no tar roads which made it difficult for emergency vehicles to gain access to the area.

"We also use the bucket system. We want the flush system," said Ntontela.

Housing activist Mzonke Poni, who led the march, said residents did not want to be violent when demanding services, "but it it's the only language that the government understands better". - from IOL

These protestors have obviously not been in contact with the Gugulethu toilet burning protestors!!!!????

Residents set toilets on fire

A new range of bucket toilets has caused a stink among Gugulethu residents, who set them alight in the street to underline their demands for better sanitation.

The toilets were introduced into the Tambo Square informal settlement community almost two months ago.

Ward councillor Belinda Landingwe of the ANC said the toilets were intended "for the betterment of the community", which had previously used larger black buckets in a long-drop - toilets referred to as the black bucket system.

But the system has not met with everyone"s approval in the community, and yesterday afternoon police had to be called in to monitor the situation as angry residents confronted Landingwe.

As the residents sang and danced in front of the burning toilets, the overwhelming stench of burning faeces filled the air.

- Cape Argus

Cape on alert for waterborne diseases

With 20 000 flood victims and nearly 6 500 homes still affected, the City is trying to prevent an outbreak of waterborne diseases by draining stagnating water.

Charlotte Powell, spokesperson for the City of Cape Town Disaster Management Team said more than 60 informal settlements have been damaged by flooding and the City's Disaster Relief Team was conducting ongoing water checks in all communities, especially ones at risk of stagnant water.

The City's Disaster Management Team has alerted health authorities in the informal settlements.

All clinics in the settlements have been placed on high alert and advised to do regular checks of people and the surrounding environment, said Greg Pillay, Head of Cape Town's Disaster Risk Management Centre.

They check stagnant water for waterborne diseases.
Stagnant water can be contaminated by many sources including sewage, said Ivan Bromfield, Executive Director of City Health.

"The longer the water is stagnant, the greater the risk of contamination," he said.

Diarrheal waterborne diseases such as E.coli are the greatest risk, and settlement residents have been advised not to drink, walk or play in standing water, he said.

- Cape Times

Stones and rubber bullets fly on Cape peak

Police fired rubber bullets at about 100 stone-throwing people who were demonstrating against the auction of a mountain peak in Hout Bay on Wednesday morning.

Inspector Tanya Lesh said the protest started at 10am when the group gathered on top of the Sentinel mountain peak above Hout Bay.

"The group of about 100 people moved down the mountain to a nearby hotel and started throwing stones at the police," Lesh said. "The police retaliated by firing rubber bullets."

No injuries were reported and no arrests were made. Two privately owned cars were damaged during the incident.

The protesters had dispersed by Wednesday afternoon.

A recent report in the Sunday Times said the 321m-high Cape Town landmark in Hout Bay had come to the attention of a short list of celebrities and tycoons, including Oprah Winfrey, Sol Kerzner, Donald Trump Junior as well as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.

The new owners could, if they wished, be able to name the peak after themselves as "Sentinel" is not a registered trademark.

Auctioneers have reportedly turned down two offers, including one for R15-million, after buying the property for only R60 000 in 2005.

The protesters say the mountain belongs to the indigenous people of South Africa and cannot belong to a private owner.

The auction was cancelled after the protest. - Sapa

Who's Mountain is it anyways?

Uproar as Hout Bay’s famous Sentinel peak is put on the market

One of Cape Town’s iconic mountain peaks is up for sale — but so far nobody has been brave enough to buy it.

Touted as a dream investment, Sentinel mountain, overlooking Hout Bay, is at the centre of an escalating property row involving local government officials, conservationists, and a landless community on the mountain slopes.

The 11ha sweep of indigenous fynbos and towering rock with postcard views of the Cape Peninsula is on the market for R12-million — about the price of a bungalow along the Atlantic seaboard a few kilometers away. It is owned by a close corporation, G and R Marine.

Phumeza Mgxashe of SANParks said the current landowner had purchased the property in 2005 for just R60000 — a realistic value for undeveloped conservation land. (from The Times)