There seems to be a land grab going on in the heart of Uvongo. The developers/owners of the allegedly name “Uvongo River Resort”, Janex and Langan Trust have simply taken control of Wadebridge Road Reserve, which is at the corner of Wadebrdige and Pioneer Roads. Wadebridge Road Reserve belongs to the Hibiscus Coast Municipality.
According to Mr. Mandla Mabece from the Planning department which stated that: “there was a lease over this portion of land but the previous owner erroneously ceded it to the new owner”. In addition, Mr. S’bu Phili stated telephonically that he was still waiting for the different departments to send in their reports before a decision could be made on whether or not to grant a lease to the owners of Uvongo River Resort. But the problem is now that the owners/developers of Lot 2469 have continued to build boundary walls around Wadebridge Road Reserve with out a lease granted to them. This has been done against the background that the municipality has served letters on them to stop on Thursday any building work on the Reserve.
However, and against these letters the owners/developers of lot 2469 continue to build another wall making the maintaince and functionality of the Eskom substation impossible. Eskom did in fact called on the services of the planning department to investigate the newly build wall and another letter was served on the owners/developers of Lot 2469, however they ignored the second letter and continued to build it. The problem now for locals in the area is if there should be a power failure or maintaince work needed at the sub station, then Eskom will not be able to do the necessary work and one will be left without power.
It really seems if the Hibiscus Municipality is not strong enough to deal with the owners of Lot 2469 in Uvongo. The result is that land belonging to the community has been taken by these owners of Lot 2469 leaving the community powerless in more ways than one.
Please feel free to contact the Municipal Manager – Mr. Mhkize at mm@hcm.gov.za and inform him if you feel this land grab can be justified.
According to Mr. Mandla Mabece from the Planning department which stated that: “there was a lease over this portion of land but the previous owner erroneously ceded it to the new owner”. In addition, Mr. S’bu Phili stated telephonically that he was still waiting for the different departments to send in their reports before a decision could be made on whether or not to grant a lease to the owners of Uvongo River Resort. But the problem is now that the owners/developers of Lot 2469 have continued to build boundary walls around Wadebridge Road Reserve with out a lease granted to them. This has been done against the background that the municipality has served letters on them to stop on Thursday any building work on the Reserve.
However, and against these letters the owners/developers of lot 2469 continue to build another wall making the maintaince and functionality of the Eskom substation impossible. Eskom did in fact called on the services of the planning department to investigate the newly build wall and another letter was served on the owners/developers of Lot 2469, however they ignored the second letter and continued to build it. The problem now for locals in the area is if there should be a power failure or maintaince work needed at the sub station, then Eskom will not be able to do the necessary work and one will be left without power.
It really seems if the Hibiscus Municipality is not strong enough to deal with the owners of Lot 2469 in Uvongo. The result is that land belonging to the community has been taken by these owners of Lot 2469 leaving the community powerless in more ways than one.
Please feel free to contact the Municipal Manager – Mr. Mhkize at mm@hcm.gov.za and inform him if you feel this land grab can be justified.
