Proposed sale already concluded for new mall

Date: 23 January 2016 By: Isabel Venter

The development of Makhado Crossing in Louis Trichardt seems to be fixed in stone and is set to commence towards the end of this year.

This information came to light during a meeting held at the Makhado Municipality on Monday. In attendance were the new owners and developers of the Makhado Crossing, the Masingita Group of Companies, representatives of four sport clubs, and the various directors of the Makhado Municipality’s technical and town planning departments.

Last year, the municipality announced that they were in the process of selling the stretch of land currently accommodating most of the town’s sporting facilities east of Makhado Crossing. The area earmarked for the sale currently houses the town’s rugby fields, the squash, gymnastics and wrestling club buildings, the sports hall and netball fields. This portion comprises a total of 8.5234 hectares.

When approached for comment last year, the municipality confirmed that the sale of the land had not been finalized, and that the municipality’s executive committee had put forth a Council resolution of the proposed sale.

On Monday, however, Masingita’s CEO, Mr Timothy Phiri, confirmed that they had already bought the property and were busy buying the Makhado Crossing.

Phiri also added that it was Masingita’s intention to break ground on the extension of the Makhado Crossing by September. He explained that Masingita had arranged beforehand with the municipality to relocate the sport clubs to a new property. Masingita will also foot the bill for the relocation costs.

Sport club representatives at the meeting were informed that the municipality had already allocated the piece of land east of the existing show grounds along the Thohoyandou road (where the model airplane club used to be).

The municipality made it clear that they would not receive any further complaints or objections about the matter and even cancelled a meeting for concerned parties that was supposed to take place on Tuesday. This meeting was supposed to be for residents or organisations who wanted to voice their concerns about the whole matter. This not only raised concern, but many residents are now sceptical about how ethically or legally the municipality conducts business on behalf of residents.

One of the questions asked was why the municipality had even bothered to incur the extra costs of advertising the “proposed” sale when it was evident that the property had already been sold to Masingita. The newspaper asked the municipality to verify whether the development of the new sporting facilities required any authorization in terms of the new environmental impact assessment (EIA) regulations, and whether any alternative properties closer to town had been considered for the development.

Municipal spokesperson Mr Louis Bobodi confirmed that he only received the newspaper’s questions on Wednesday and that he needed more time to answer them properly. He promised to answer the newspaper by the end of the week.

With regard to Masingita, they plan to develop Makhado Crossing and expand it into a regional mall. The hope expressed by Phiri was that the expansion will be completed in 18 months’ time if they can start in September.

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Isabel Venter

Isabel joined the Zoutpansberger and Limpopo Mirror in 2009 as a reporter. She holds a BA Degree in Communication Sciences from the University of South Africa. Her beat is mainly crime and court reporting.

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