POLOKWANE – The Polokwane Municipality plans to develop a bigger township than envisaged by land claimants, at the junction of the Percy Fyfe and Matlala roads towards the Central Business District.
The development would be located near the 383 erven that the municipality had promised to give to land claimants of ward 19 from the new New Pietersburg area, better known as Disteneng, close to Westenburg and Ext 40.
This was announced during last Wednesday’s council meeting, held in the municipal chambers, when the mayoral committee requested council to allocate the controversial Ext 40 land to the restitution beneficiaries.
This came after hundreds of claimants found a different group of inhabitants demarcating stands on the land in question almost two months ago – after it had originally been donated to them by the municipality.
Read more: High police visibility during protests from removed Disteneng residents
On August 25, the group has since given Human Settlements and Land Reform, Provincial Government and the Polokwane Municipality 14 days to respond to a memorandum of demands for more stands. Meanwhile, despite the concern, council only approved to allocate the remaining sites to the ward 19 community.
While the group is waiting in anticipation, the municipality announced that it intended to develop the land for a multiple storey housing development that will see 10 000 houses built.
The aim is to benefit three groups, comprising 50% walk-up Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) houses, 30% government-subsidised houses for beneficiaries who earn less than R3 500,00 per month and 20% open market houses.
Last Saturday, ward 19 residents gathered at the Westenburg community hall and agreed that should a satisfactory response not be received, another protest would be organised.
