A WAR of words ensued on Tuesday morning between Komani property agent, Henry van Oosten (Oosten Realty), and residents who had divided the vacant land near the McDonald’s building into plots for themselves.
The group was led by the EFF Chris Hani regional leadership, with councillor Luthando Amos at the forefront giving instructions. Amos said the group consisted of local business people who were looking for commercial land to build a retail park for their different businesses.
“We decided to divide this piece of land among ourselves without consulting the municipality. All we want is commercial land that these entrepreneurs will be able to own, trade on and compete with other businesses,” he said.
The open plot seems to be under development, as there are side tipper trucks that offload rubble on it and it gets levelled.
Without a tape measure, the group had managed to cut the land into plots, which Amos said were around 60m².
“The sites will be slightly bigger than RDP houses which are 50m². The number of people who stand to benefit here are above 50. This was a river which some businessperson decided on their own that they are going to develop for their own needs and we are doing exactly that.
“There is no record from the muni-cipality that shows who is the owner of this piece of land and there is no council resolution to that effect, hence we decided to occupy the land. There is no way this project could have passed the environmental assessment impact because it’s built on a flood line,” Amos added.
Amos had used his Facebook account to invite all in need of land to come for their plots at 10:00 on Tuesday. However, while at it, Van Oosten, who claimed to be the lawful owner of the land, arrived and attempted to stop the group. A war of words ensued.
Van Oosten said the sites where McDonald’s was built and the one in question belonged to a company by the name of Style Props 4, which he has shares in.
“This land isn’t vacant or up for grabs because it is registered under someone’s name at the municipality and this gentleman (Amos) is a councillor at the Enoch Mgijima Local Municipality. He can easily access all the information. McDonald’s is renting the plot from me and we are busy developing this site, but at this point we can’t tell you what we will do with it,” he said.
He said he is a member of the Border-Kei Chamber of Business and was willing to help emerging businesses through leases and assist them in buying their own property – something which the group rejected.
After a prolonged exchange of words with Amos and Van Oosten telling each other that the other was talking nonsense, Amos asked for the two sites’ ERF numbers.
He was provided with the ERF numbers and said he would confirm everything with the municipality.
The Enoch Mgijima Local Municipality’s deeds office was contacted by the Komani-Karoo Express for a comment via the mayor’s spokesperson, Butsha Lali, for verification of ownership of the two sites.
But Lali said he would only be able to provide answers on Wednesday morning.
No comment could be obtained from the municipality at the time of going to print.
Amos said he’d investigate all suspicious developments on municipal land which the council never resolved.
