A prolonged seven-year battle over a piece of land in urban Polokwane has been escalated to the highest structures in South Africa in the past and now the matter might be diverted to the courts for an intended interdict if necessary, as a local property developer has exhausted all avenues to commence with a R450 million housing development which could eventually help relieve the city’s social housing backlog.
Since 2011 local property developer, Glen Matsaung has reportedly attempted to secure intervention by representatives of all relevant institutions – the Office of the Presidency, the Department of Human Settlements, the Social Housing Regulatory Authority (Shra), the Public Protector, the Department of Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs (Coghsta) and Polokwane Municipality – to be able to commence with a housing project on original Transnet Limited property situated along the Market Street extension but without success. He claims to have faced one hurdle after the other in his quest to obtain 4,2 hectares of land for a development, which is planned to run in two phases and to include 420 and 252 housing units as well as 182-bed student accommodation respectively. Actual construction of Matsaung Heights, supposed to target low and middle income earners, is expected to take 24 months if it could only get off the ground, it was learnt.
War against red tape, housing backlog
An interview with Matsaung gave a glimpse of efforts of the past seven years constituting a war fought against perceived red tape and the backdrop of a housing backlog faced by Polokwane Municipality. The backlog currently stands at 36 000 units in the urban area and around 6 000 units in the rural areas, according to Polokwane Municipality spokesperson Matshidiso Mothapo. It is about half of what it was as alluded to in a copy of a letter by Molatelo Mashego, Polokwane Municipality’s Manager for City Planning and Property Management forwarded in mid-April last year, who quoted the municipality’s sector plans to be estimating the city’s housing backlog at 77 456 during the 2015/16 financial year. It apparently included rural housing, affordable social housing, informal settlement, urban and student accommodation.
The subject area has been identified as the city’s growth point located within the urban edge in the municipality’s 2011 Spatial Development Framework, was regarded accessible and as fitting in with the concept of a green economy for sustainable development, according to the contents of the letter.
A paper trail of documentation leads the reader through correspondence referring to, among others, Matsaung alerting Transnet Limited on the intention by his company to purchase the land in question, a portion of erf 109/688 of Farm Sterkloop.
In another letter addressed to Polokwane Municipality in 2011 there is reference to Transnet Limited informing the company that the latter had advised that it no longer alienated land to individuals or companies but would consider an application from the municipality regarding the sale of the land to the municipality on a market-related basis.
Matsaung referred to a Shra official also noting in a letter in December 2013 that the institution had advised that it could not actively assist in the process to purchase the property but could only discuss the matter with the municipality and Coghsta to assist with his request.
Matsaung mentioned having engaged with Polokwane Municipality without success in a letter to the then acting Head of Department at Coghsta, Nape Nchabeleng who is Limpopo’s Director-General, in March 2015. He stressed that they would want the provincial government to authorise the sale of land between Transnet and their company and simultaneously raised the fact that Transnet had agreed to further alienate 3 hectares of land, intended for building student accommodation.
Situation drags on for years
Meanwhile the situation has dragged on over the years, with Matsaung having seemingly reached a deadlock with Coghsta ultimately not awarding him a commitment letter for a
R67 million grant in the form of a provincial top-up subsidy which he needed to apply for a Shra grant of R110 million, submitted on 6 July last year. All along he had learnt of a Polokwane Housing Association (PHA) grant for the second phase of the Ga-Rena Rental Village a month or two later, which would have meant that his application was at risk of not being successful due to perceived over-supply in social housing in Polokwane, he said. It would have been pushed back in the queue as a first-come, first-served approach counted, he stipulated.
Confirmation of lease
Matsaung furnished a copy of correspondence addressed to a Coghsta official that referred to his application for the provincial top-up subsidy submitted on 17 May last year having been declined due to him not being able to prove land ownership, despite documentation confirming a lease obtained in 2017. According to Matsaung he had not received written reasons for his application to Coghsta to be declined.
He pointed out a letter from Shra’s Chief Executive Officer received on 7 March this year underscoring the fact that it was evident from a meeting with Matsaung the previous day that there existed a very bitter dispute, history and relationship between himself and the provincial government represented by Coghsta. According to the letter the Shra delegation had provided Matsaung with guidance on how to progress the important opportunity forward and pointed out that it was a legislative requirement that he obtained project approval from the provincial government through the MEC of Coghsta and that he rejected the guidance. This, Matsaung indicated, he contradicted.
To date nothing has come of efforts to secure the go-ahead to enter into the project or from further attempts to engage the Office of the President and the Department of Human Settlements, of which an official acknowledged receipt of his complaint in March this year but had not yet given him feedback on Monday as per undertaking, Matsaung claimed.
He blamed red tape, his exposing of alleged corruption in land transactions in Polokwane in the past and the conduct of Coghsta for the development not getting off the ground. “This is their intention to collapse me.”
Demand for meeting with President
“I need a meeting with the President because I have exhausted every avenue thus far. My intention wasn’t to interdict Polokwane Housing Association. I’m saying let’s build this city. I want to be part of Thuma Mina. But if push comes to shove I will do it,” Matsaung concluded.
Attempts to obtain Cogstha comment at the time of going to press were unsuccessful as the phones for Coghsta spokespersons Paena Galane and Motupa Selomo rang off the hook. A voice message left on one of Selomo’s phones went unanswered.
Story & photo: YOLANDE NEL
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