Louis Trichardt businessman Mr Ronnie Sutherland says he still has hope to see his dream of a township development at Elim take shape, despite the project being hi-jacked, as he calls it, by the Makhado Municipality a couple of years ago. He now says the municipality has an obligation towards him to try and save the development.

In the beginning of 2001, Mr Sutherland decided to donate a 200ha portion of his farm Doornspruit, near Elim, to the provincial Department of Local Government and Housing for the purpose of an agricultural housing project. When he received no response from the relevant department, he then started seeking funding from independent developers to develop the area to the benefit of the local community.

Mr Sutherland said he lined up several options for potential developers, including Cape Town-based company Tovial Trust and the International Marketing Association. As part of negotiations with them, the companies had the option of buying Mr Sutherland out of the contract at the price of R12 million or keeping him on board as a sub-contractor to do the bush clearing and the building of streets. Negotiations with these two parties, however, ceased when Mr Sutherland rather opted to sign a development contract with a Chinese developer, Mr Hui-yu Tian on March 14, 2002. Shortly afterwards, plans were drawn up for a township development on the 200ha portion of Mr Sutherland’s farm. Dubbed the Madiba Sunshine Garden project, the contract comprised the building of some 3 200 residential units, three primary schools, two secondary schools, one business centre, a clinic, a community centre, five churches, five corner shops and one municipal office.

With the contract signed, Mr Sutherland introduced Mr Tian to the Makhado Municipality as part of further negotiations. Tragedy struck Mr Sutherland, however, in November 2002 when he was seriously injured after being run over by a fork lift on which he was working. Spending months in hospital, Mr Sutherland was back on his feet by March 2003, only to learn that Mr Tian had in the meantime signed a contract with the Makhado Municipality for the development of a R103 million colour steel factory. Following the signing of this contract in February 2003, Mr Sutherland’s development grinded to a halt.

(For those who might remember, this R103 million colour steel factory project in Louis Trichardt’s industrial area was paraded as one of the municipality’s flagship developments under the reign of former mayor Cllr Brighton Tlakula and former municipal manager Mr Reuben Rambado. Boasting with some 200 local job opportunities, the factory was supposed to be fully operational by January 2004. At present, however, this development is another example of one of the Makhado Municipality’s "white elephant" deals. With the municipality flogging off 14 of their industrial erven, comprising 14,4ha at a price of a mere R288 000 for the construction of the factory, the property is today still as barren and undeveloped as the day it was sold).

The Elim-development suffered a further setback when Mr Sutherland was arrested in November 2003 on a charge of alleged fraud relating to the use of Air Force machinery without their consent. It was alleged that Mr Sutherland had used AFB Makhado’s Komatsu-bulldozer for private gain in the completion of a project for the Tshikombani-branch of the ZZC church. It was also alleged that Mr Sutherland had profited from the deal to the amount of R500 000. This sparked an almost-three-year-long legal battle during which Mr Sutherland’s assets were seized by the State, leaving him no option but to put the Elim development on hold. On August 28, 2006, he walked away from court a free man after Regional Magistrate Ronnie Rambau delivered a "not-guilty" verdict.

Six years on, and with his court case behind him, Mr Sutherland says he can now give his full attention to the Madiba Sunshine Garden project again. He says that, from the start, it was not his intention to make any money from the development, but rather a way of giving something back to the community he grew up in. Before the project ground to a standstill, more than 500 applications for housing were received from the rural community, says Mr Sutherland.

As for his contract with the Mr Tian, Mr Sutherland says he hopes that Tian will honour the contract. He stated that in the initial phase of the development, he had already received a R500 000 payment from Mr Tian as part of a R1 million contract with regard to clearing bushes on the farm. This, he says, is proof that the contract between them is binding. Since the signing of the contract between the Makhado Municipality and Mr Tian, however, no further payments were received and Mr Sutherland now claims that, because of this, the Makhado Municipality "sank" the Elim project by hijacking his business partner. If Mr Tian does not honour the initial contract, Mr Sutherland says, he will hold the municipality financially accountable for any losses.

But there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel with regard to the Elim development. Following discussions with the present Makhado mayor, Cllr Glory Mashaba, and other relevant municipal stakeholders in April last year, Mr Sutherland says he was asked to re-submit all documentation regarding the development for possible inclusion in the municipality’s IDP (Integrated Development Plan). According to Mr Sutherland, he is happy to see that the Elim development plan was indeed included in the municipality’s 2008/9 IDP-programme.

A copy of this article, as well as a list of questions, was sent to the municipality’s municipal spokesperson, Mr Louis Bobodi, for comment last week. Mr Bobodi said this week, however, that they were still looking into the matter and would respond at a later stage. Questions put to the municipality included whether or not the Elim-project has indeed been included in their IDP-programme; to what extent the municipality would be involved in the project if it formed part of the IDP; and what their legal stand was on Sutherland’s claim that the municipality owed him for "hijacking" his client.