Alfred Road land set to be a scrapyard

Municipality says fence on open public space

In response to last week’s story about a suspected land grab on a vacant erf behind a recycling depot in Alfred Road, a man who claims to be the owner of the site has come forward to protest that the claims are untrue.

Mario Michael van Rooyen, a Station Hill resident, said he had bought the land for R1.2m and planned to use it for a scrapyard.

Van Rooyen also complained that no one had contacted him to ask about the land.

TotT responded that he was not known to be the owner and questions had been directed to the municipality.

TotT first visited the erf after being alerted to a suspected land grab by a concerned resident, who described it as a mushrooming of shacks.

However, upon visiting the site on January 17, TotT saw no shacks but that an incompletelooking fence made of poles and zince sheeting had been erected.

There was only one structure which looked like a shack attached to zinc fencing.

In response to TotT’s questions last week, Ndlambe municipal spokesperson Cecil Mbolekwa said: “We are doing our investigation as to what is happening there. We will give you feedback.”

On Monday, Mbolekwa sent an e-mail confirming that he would give detailed feedback on Tuesday.

A few hours after Mbolekwa’s e-mail, an angry Van Rooyen came to TotT’s office claiming to be the owner of the piece of land.

He repeatedly demanded to know why his land had featured in the newspaper and why he had not been contacted.

He refused to accept the explanation that the owner was not known to us, and that the matter was being investigated by the municipality.

Van Rooyen insisted that he had bought the land for R1.2m and intended to build a scrapyard there.

In an attempt to prove his ownership of the land, erf 5370, Van Rooyen later brought a document with his full names and showing the amount of R1.2m.

He would not allow TotT to look through the document or make a copy.

Explaining the fence of zinc sheets, he said: “We put those poles and shacks up so that there can be someone there looking after our stuff.

“Our things there get stolen.”

He also said the municipality was aware that he owned the land.

When the TotT reporter showed him the municipality’s response, he did not pay attention to it.

However, on Tuesday, Mbolekwa disputed Van Rooyen’s claims.

He said the fence had been erected on public open space, erf 1098, which is next to erf 5370.

“We still maintain that 1098 is municipal land. With regard to erf 5370, according to our records it is registered to Konga Distributors cc.

“As to what is the relationship or what connects Mr Van Rooyen with the property, we do have that information,” he said.

Mbolekwa said municipal officials had visited the site on three occasions but there had been nobody there to issue a notice to about encroaching on public open space.

The current valuation rolls are not available on the Ndlambe website to ascertain the value of the relevant erven.

In the 2008 valuation roll, erf 5370 was registered to North Street Prop cc, and had no value attached. It is 5,409m² in size.