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10/04/2008 03:16 PM - (SA) 'Community gave liquor store their blessing' 11/4/08
Mr Matha said about three weeks ago he became aware that a group of people together with a fellow-councillor were going from door tot door in the community canvassing support against the proposed development. He said a meeting was held on the weekend by the ANC to resolve the dispute, "but despite this, they are still knocking on doors, getting people to say they were not informed of the development". "This is not true. The community was consulted," Mr Matha said. He showed DistrictMail a ledger full of correspondence regarding the matter, as well as a detailed datalists of unemployed people in Assanda Village, Nomzamo and Chris Nissen Park, who could benefit from the project, as well as lists containing hundreds of names of people who had earlier given their blessing to the project. Mr Matha explained that a Ward Task Team had initially rejected the proposal in 2006. Their reasons were the high crime rate and also as they had felt that Asla, who owned the piece of private land, was undermining the community, by not informing them they were selling the land for development. But after about a month or two, he said, the developers phoned him to arrange a meeting in his office as they wanted to explain something. "Myself, Councillor Vicket Mavungavunga, the late Solomon Qatyana, Mr Zulu and Mr Saziwa, all community leaders, met with Mr Rankin and Mr Brits. They said they realised they had not followed the right channels, were aware of the community's concerns and intended to address the crime." "They promised to work hand-in-hand with the councillors, Sanco and the community leaders in fighting crime by organising sport and cultural activities for the youth to keep them busy and by sponsoring sports kits as well as musical instruments." "They also explained that their proposal would bring 15 permanent jobs and that they would use local labour in the construction of the structure. After this, they all agreed to give their blessing as this was a development for the people," Mr Matha said. He said a full public participation process was then followed. "We met the branch executive of the ANC and with both SANCO of Nomzamo and of Assanda Village, who both gave their blessing, and then went to the communities of Nomzamo, Assanda Village and Wag 'n Bietjie, who also gave their blessing." "We also had a Ward Task Team meeting on November 28, 2006 when a decision to support the proposal was signed by SANCO leaders. After that there were more consultations and a meeting with the taverners. A public meeting was held on December 12, 2006, with the taverners, the businesspeople, the community and leadership of SANCO. It was only after this, Mr Matha said, that he wrote the letter to the developers on December 12, 2006, to inform them that he had the consent of the community to tell them to go ahead with the proposal. "It is not true to now say there was no public participation. They are misleading the community."
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