Mooiplaas development is on hold
The Gauteng government wants to start building houses in Mooiplaas in Tshwane after spending R76 million on land to accommodate the development, but residents are holding it up.
Gauteng Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs and Human Settlements MEC Paul Mashatile is calling on residents to let the building of houses go ahead in their community.
Some Mooiplaas residents were allocated houses in the nearby Olievenhoutbosch, but people in that area are opposed to houses in their community being allocated to “beneficiaries from outside”.
“About 750 people from Mooiplaas qualified to go to Olievenhoutbosch.
“But now the residents of Olievenhoutbosch say they do not want people from Mooiplaas, because every time we allocate we bring in people from this area,” he said.
Government representatives would go to Olievenhoutbosch this week to negotiate for 750 people to move there. But at the same time building had to start in Mooiplaas, he added.
City of Tshwane mayor Solly Msimanga said government had proposed a win-win situation for both communities, but the community of Olievenhoutbosch had threatened a “blood bath”.
“As a responsible government and as the number one citizen of Tshwane, I cannot allow a situation where violence becomes the order of the day,” he said.
Plans for a residential area for the community and also for factories were ready, he said. – ANA