Community protests over park developments

According to Craighall Residents’ Association spokesperson, Wendy McAllister, the Scout building on the ‘Waterfall Park’ – as residents refer to it – was a Scout hall but now a new lessee has moved in and started construction without the city communicating with the CraigPark community.

“[Johannesburg Property Company] say legal and proper tender processes were taken in awarding the tender, but our concern is that we, as the community, had on many occasions approached the city to find out what was happening with the property and proposed that some organisations within the community be accommodated there,” she said.

However, a disappointed McAllister said the property company had communicated that they were waiting to sort out the lease with the Scouts before making any decisions, but failed to correspond with the community once this was done.

Hurlingham resident Carien Wandrag said although she was not directly affected by this, her neighbours were and it was not right that development would take place without community participation.

“Although, the new lessee is well within her rights, our concern is that we do not know what is being built, if it will benefit the community, and whether or not the space would still be open to the public,” said Wandrag.

According to e-mail communication from the Johannesburg Property Company to the Craighall Residents’ Association, the property on Waterfall Avenue, which is referred to as a park by the residents, is in fact zoned Residential 1 and is not a public open space.

The e-mail states:

•  The current lessee is a newly-formed non-profit company/organisation whose aim is to establish an Early Learning Centre as well as an African Language School on the property which would benefit the community of Craighall and its surroundings
•  A removable jungle gym will be installed for the children…
•  Three temporary removable prefabricated classrooms… will be erected on the property for the duration of lease and will be removed upon expiry of the lease agreement. Dept. of Human and Social Development will inspect [the] facility for compliance in terms of early childhood development frameworks.

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