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| The cemetery of the Constantia Mosque on Spaanschemat River Road. |
Many of the farms belonged to “coloured” farmers who were brutally forced off their land under apartheid. One such farm was apparently bought at an auction on the Parade in Cape Town in 1902 by the Solomons family who lived in the large Victorian house on the farm until they and their tenants were evicted from their land in 1966 because it had been zoned for “whites” under the Group Areas Act and they happened to be classified as “coloured”. Their houses were demolished, but their cemetery and mosque were spared and continue to be used to this day by the families who were scattered far and wide.
In the 1990s the families lodged a land claim, and after a long process, what remains of their once extensive land has been restored to them.
The next step was what to do with this land, which had been run as a municipal dump site and left derelict for decades. They needed to come up with a development plan to submit to the City of Cape Town under existing city planning policy and law.
The City of Cape Town has a very impressive planning document, The Southern District Spatial Development Plan, approved in 2012, which identifies the land claim site for “New Urban Infill” and for “Potential Medium-Density Development” and “Inclusionary Housing” to cater for a wide range of income groups. The document stresses that commercial development should preferably take place along the Main Road/Railway corridor and “in or near to pockets of recently developed low income areas” and areas on public transport routes. In their very words, commercial re-zoning would be inappropriate for this site, and the successful land claimants should pursue the medium density housing development route.
Here was an opportunity to put into practice the City’s own policy of encouraging “a mix of residential types” that would cater “for single people, elderly people, young professionals, and lower paid professionals such as teachers and nurses.”
Here was an opportunity to put into practice the City’s stated desire to “enhance the unique sense of place” as this area of Constantia is positioned between two declared ”scenic routes” and is close to two “arrival points” of Constantia. Here was an opportunity to “enhance the value of heritage resources and scenic routes ...in keeping with the special cultural landscape” of the area.
Here was an opportunity to develop a suburb with a mix of residents in keeping with the City’s desire to integrate South Africans. The City’s Southern District Plan states that “The City must promote integrated settlement patterns in existing and new residential areas to accommodate Cape Town’s growing population and redress social and land use fragmentation”. Here was as opportunity to create a new suburb – perhaps commemorating the names of the families that used to live here in the overall name and new street names. Here was an opportunity to tell the real Constantia’s story – a powerful story of oppression and a fight for dignity and tolerance.
But has the City of Cape Town capitalised on this opportunity? Has it capitalised on the hard-won battle of the “coloured” families to regain their land and dignity and provide an example of how Cape Town could implement an “integrated” residential area. Could the families scattered far and wide under apartheid now be given an opportunity to come home?
No they have not. The City of Cape Town in all its wisdom wants to pave over the soil and put up a Shoprite/Checkers supermarket and extended parking lot. An inappropriate application by one of the land claimants to develop a huge and ugly shopping centre (a stone’s throw away from the Constantia Village shopping centre) on Spaanschemat River Road has been approved by the city planners. All this despite the high morals and values set out in their “official” policy documents. One wonders why they go to the trouble to draft such documents if they totally ignore them. And all this despite an overwhelming body of objection from the Constantia Ratepayers and Residents Association (CRRA) and numerous other residential associations and private individuals.
Oh yes, there are a few days left to appeal, but we all know that no-one will care a jot because too many bribes – er sorry, incentives and kick-backs – are probably taking place.
It is shameful.
For what its worth, an appeal can be made to the City Manager, c/o the Southern District Manager, at the following address: Planning.appeals@capetown.gov.za before the 17th February 2017.
Open letter of objection from the Barbarossa Residents Association: http://livinginaveryavenue.blogspot.co.za/2016/08/letter-of-objection-to-proposed.html
The Constantia Ratepayers and Residents association objection: http://crra.co.za/planning-application-for-a-retail-centre-at-old-ladies-mile-waste-site-erven-137078-constantia/
Southern District Plan: Spatial development plan and Environmental management framework: Technical report: http://resource.capetown.gov.za/documentcentre/Documents/City%20research%20reports%20and%20review/Southern_District_Plan_Technical_Report.pdf
Southern District Plan: Spatial development plan: http://resource.capetown.gov.za/documentcentre/Documents/Maps%20and%20statistics/Composite%20Metro%20H_May2014.pdf
