Contractor has green light to continue for now

Date: 28 April 2022 By: Andries van Zyl

Louis Trichardt residents will have noticed by now that construction work north of Stubbs Street has certainly not been halted, and since Thursday last week, the area has once again been a beehive of construction activity.

Bush clearing in this area started around mid-March. Some welcomed the possibility that development in the area will bring much-needed economic growth to the town, while others were left fuming. The latter include environmentalist who have vehemently opposed attempts to develop the area in the past, stating that the area forms part of the town’s sensitive “Green Belt” buffer zone.

After a couple of weeks of silence on this issue, the Makhado Municipality finally responded to media enquiries as to what is planned for the area. Makhado municipal spokesperson Mr Louis Bobodi stated that the current development in the area is taking place in accordance with the town’s existing town-planning scheme for the establishment of 179 new residential sites as was Gazetted in 1984. He said that they were not deviating from the town-planning scheme.

In terms of funding for the development, Bobodi confirmed that this is indeed a combined project between the municipality and the provincial department of Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs (CoGHSTA). “The municipality has applied for assistance from CoGHSTA, which was subsequently granted to put the engineering services together,” said Bobodi. Following this, the tender to establish service infrastructure in the area (which forms part of Extension 9) was awarded to Rhandzo Projects (Pty) Ltd under contract number COGHSTAB19/18-19FY24.

The sudden development sparked questions as to whether the municipality and CoGHSTA would have needed to get environmental authorisation or conduct an environmental impact assessment (EIA) before starting with excavation works. This issue also attracted the attention of the Directorate of Environmental Compliance and Enforcement (DECE).

The DECE did an inspection of the site last week and found that the type of current development taking place is classified as “linear” development. Linear development includes minor surface work and the digging of trenches for the laying of pipes, as is the case regarding the current activities north of Stubbs Street. No environmental authorisation (EA) or EIA is required for this initial phase of development.

Having said this, the DECE has been confirmed to be in the process of drafting a “compliance” to which the municipality needs to respond. This letter will list the minimum environmental requirements the municipality needs to meet before moving to the next phase. Regarding this, the general consensus is that the current development will proceed, whether residents like it or not.

At this stage, the contents of the letter regarding the minimum requirements the municipality needs to meet is not yet known as the municipality first needs to respond to it. Once they respond, the letter will become an open document accessible to the public. The Zoutpansberger will keep residents up to date on the process, as well as inform them of the contents of the letter once the municipality has responded.

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Andries van Zyl

Andries joined the Zoutpansberger and Limpopo Mirror in April 1993 as a darkroom assistant. Within a couple of months he moved over to the production side of the newspaper and eventually doubled as a reporter. In 1995 he left the newspaper group and travelled overseas for a couple of months. In 1996, Andries rejoined the Zoutpansberger as a reporter. In August 2002, he was appointed as News Editor of the Zoutpansberger, a position he holds until today.

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