A case of land expropriation, reportedly halted by the City of Johannesburg, which has led to council’s suspension on 21 June has raised some questions by the community of Rabie Ridge.
The African National Congress (ANC) protested in council after a motion they wanted to be tabled was not accepted by the programming committee, meaning it would never reach council for discussion.
The motion was to have Executive Mayor Herman Mashaba referred to the City’s Ethics Committee for allegedly undermining council by not acting to support an expropriation transaction, undertaken in 2003.
Mashaba said the committee found that the motion was inadmissible as no breach of council’s processes had been committed by either the executive or the mayor.
But now more questions have arisen about the transaction that started in 2003 and reportedly ended up in court early this year. Democratic Alliance (DA) PR Councillor for wards 80 and 110, Nicole Rahn, said the motion in question is related to a piece of land on Allendale Road in Ward 32, adjacent to her wards, and not in Rabie Ridge.
Rahn said the ANC’s claims in their press release were ‘so filled with lies and so misleading it begs answers to a number of very important questions’.
“We demand that the record is set straight so that the people of Rabie Ridge know the truth about the level of land corruption that the DA-led coalition government inherited in the City,” she said.
The ANC, in their statement, said Mashaba undermined the decision taken by council when he reportedly cancelled the expropriation process in November 2016, shortly after being inducted as mayor.
But Mashaba said the transaction would appear to have been irregularly made, lacking in proper council oversight and against the best interest of residents. Though the matter is still under internal investigation, Mashaba said preliminary observations suggest only those aligned to the ANC would have benefitted from this process. He said it seems that the past administration sought to force the City into expropriating property at an inflated cost, whilst deriving little utility for the City and residents from the purchase.
The land in question, the party’s whip Solly Mogase said, was to have been expropriated for building houses, but the owners objected to it, leading the matter to the courts. Mogase said the mayor did not represent the City in this matter in court.
Rahn question why the title deed was handed over in January 2016 to the City, but with no compensation paid to the owner by the previous administration.
“How can this council – which was only elected in August 2016 – have resolved to pay for the property?”
When the DA came into power in August 2016, Rahn said, the administration was allegedly told to pay R200-million for the property, which was valued at only R7 million.
“The biggest question that needs to be addressed is why was the original owner of the property not compensated when the title deed was handed over?
“Who stands to gain from the R193 000 000 profit?”
Talk to us by emailing our group editor on daniellap@caxton.co.za
Also check out:
https://www.citizen.co.za/midrand-reporter/193747/rabie-ridge-community-intervention/
https://www.citizen.co.za/midrand-reporter/194100/rabie-ridge-police-recover-firearms-used-in-robberies/
https://www.citizen.co.za/midrand-reporter/197138/rabie-ridge-sports-complex-reopened/
