De Lille halts Distric Six land sale
|Published
ACT: Patricia de Lille ACT: Patricia de Lille
Newly appointed Public Works Minister Patricia de Lille is showing her claws and has halted plans to sell 25 tracts of land belonging to her department in Cape Town.
The move was seen as a major victory for restitution in the ongoing District Six dispute.
De Lille said: “I can confirm that the advert for request for proposal has been stopped by me three weeks ago so that we can have proper consultation.
“I was not consulted about this. Some of the land parcels included in the list had been transferred to CPUT (Cape Peninsula of Technology) as part of the District Six land restitution programme.”
According to the District Six Working Committee, the department intended to sell 25 pieces of land within the boundaries of District Six.
Seventeen of those parcels were identified for development, reports the Cape Argus.
Chairperson Shahied Ajam said: “To our understanding, within the 150m demarcation within District Six there are parcels of land that Public Works wants to sell off; there are old derelict buildings that they want to get rid off as well.
“If this goes through, we have no choice but to head to court and go the legal route again,” he said.
In May, it was revealed that for Phase 3 (Q site) of the development to be completed, CPUT needs to transfer 5.6 hectares of land to the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform, but that hasn’t happened yet as the institution is waiting for Public Works to transfer land to the university for its future expansion.
Public Works, on the other hand, said it could not release the land to CPUT as it was needed by other state departments.
Cape Argus