Alex wants Frankenwald Estate expropriated
ALEXANDRA -– Alexandra needs housing and a university just like Soweto for our children to learn and develop, says Ruele.
Government has been called upon to institute an expropriation without compensation test case on the Frankenwald land that has long been promised to the people of Alexandra.
The call was made by the vice-president of the We Love Alexandra Community Makeover Project, Lawrence Ruele during a wide ranging interview with Alex News in which he expressed his dismay at the delay in handing over the land to the township folk.
Mining magnate Alfred Beit donated the Frankenwald Estate to the former colony of Transvaal in 1905 to be used for educational purposes only, and Transvaal in turn handed over the land in 1922 to Wits University for educational purposes.
But due to major low cost housing demands in Alexandra, the City of Johannesburg approached Wits with the purpose of buying the 290-hectare piece of land which is close to Marlboro Gautrain Station and Linbro Business Park to extend the township of Alexandra.
Wits is said to have changed its mind and now wants to turn the land into a commercial development venture by building a shopping mall, offices and a mixed housing project for the middle and low income residents.
“There is no reason why we can’t get Frankenwald,” Ruele said, adding that if “we can’t get it through negotiation, we then we call upon the government to institute an expropriation without compensation test case on the Frankenwald land.
“Alexandra needs housing, a university just like Soweto for our children to learn and develop,” Ruele said. He cited other pockets of land that should also be acquired in Linbro Park, Rietfontein, Linksfield, Marlboro, Kew, Wynberg, and Water Fall.
In 2017, the Frankenwald Estate was invaded by squatters who were calling themselves the Landless People of Alexandra, who wanted to occupy it by force. The squatters were forcefully removed by the authorities but vowed to return.
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