Committee Programme; Sale of Vacant State Land in George

Meeting report

PUBLIC WORKS PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE
4 February 2004
COMMITTEE PROGRAMME; SALE OF VACANT STATE LAND IN GEORGE

Chairperson: Chief M Hlengwa (IFP)

Documents handed out:
Draft Committee Programme 2004

SUMMARY
The Department of Public Works requested the Committee to recommend the sale of vacant state land at an ex-army college in George. The Committee decided to have an in situ inspection of the site before deciding if the land sale would be recommended. Members discussed the draft committee program which was accepted with certain changes.

MINUTES
The Chairperson welcomed the committee members and requested permission to add a briefing by a Department of Public Works official to the agenda, to which the members agreed.

Briefing by Department of Public Works
Mr L Colly, a Client Services Manager in the Department of Public Works, briefed the Committee on the situation regarding the ex-army college in George. Since 2002 the college buildings had been utilised by the South African Police Services. However, the vacant land on site, formerly used as sportsfields, was not being utilised. The Department of Public Works had cleared the vacant land and now recommended that the land go out for open tender for the sale thereof.

Discussion
Mr S Opperman (DA) emphasised the importance of the above issue, as the Department of Public Works were the custodians of the property of the state.

Chief Hlengwa asked if the buildings on the property were occupied.

Mr Colly replied that the buildings were occupied, but it was the land, which was previously a sportsfield, that was vacant.

Mr Opperman enquired if there were any problems with vagrancy on the land.

Mr Colly replied that there were no vagrancy probelms, but that there was the potential for a vagrancy problem to arise.

Mr K Moonsamy (ANC) felt that a site visit was necessary in order to make an informed decision on whether to sell the land or not.

Mr E Sigwela (ANC) asked if the sale would include the whole complex or just the sportsfield and if the property disposal unit regarded the sale of the property as viable.

Mr Colly replied that it would be the vacant land of the property that would be for sale and the Department of Public Works had made a recommendation to the property disposal unit.

Mr Moonsamy reiterated the point that the Committee did not know the property in order to make a meaningful decision and suggested that the Committee or some of its members visit the site in order to make a decision.

Mr Opperman expressed concern that there would not be time for such a visit.

Mr Sigwela said that from the description, it seemed as if the sportsfield was redundant and agreed with Mr Moonsamy that a site visit was necessary in order to make a decision which would be forwarded to the regional office of the Department of Public Works.

Committee programme
The committee secretary read out the draft committee programme so that it could be discussed.

Mr Moonsamy stated that property withdrawal was an urgent matter that required immediate attention.

Mr Opperman said that proper planning was necessary when doing the site inspection in George. It was not sustainable to go to George only, but that other areas should be included in the trip.

Chief C Maluleke-Hlaneki (ANC) said that as George was on the same route as the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal then it should be incorporated into such a visit.

The Chair noted that there were a few nodal points in the Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal and suggested that a delegation could leave Cape Town in the morning and fly to KwaZulu-Natal via George in one day. The members agreed to the suggestion.

The programme for the session was discussed and date changes were made to the draft programme.

Chief Hlengwa noted that the programme for the session could only be discussed up until 31 March as the elections might have an impact on the programme. The committee secretary would circulate a final copy.

The meeting was adjourned.