Following a long wait for a new town planner, Giyani residents can now hopefully expect to see some changes, such as infrastructure development and the demarcation of new stands for residential purposes.

According to Solani Ntshani, the new town planner, Giyani municipality has waited for more than 20 years since it last allocated stands to people. “The last demarcation was done in section-F, before the democratic elections in 1994. Now you can see how much of a backlog we have to deal with,” explains Solani.

This comes amidst the alleged shaky relationship that the municipality had in the past with traditional leaders regarding land, most of which is inside the Giyani CBD. To this effect, Solani indicated that they are busy negotiating with the traditional leaders in an effort to find common ground.

One of the core demands by the tradition leaders include a 20% profit on the land sold to developers, of which Solani could not confirm whether they wanted it in monetary terms or in labour. If the traditional leaders prefer a labour arrangement, it could mean employing 20% of the workers from a particular village for every big development that takes place in the area. Should they opt for compensation, the municipality may then invest it in infrastructure in the village concerned.

“Right now, we’re just waiting for an evaluator to value the land, so we can sit down again with them and see how best we can deal with this issue,” explains Solani.

The new town planner will also have to deal with the existing practice where traditional leaders are still allocating land. Solani admitted that, although this could hamper their progress, it won’t prevent the development of Giyani. “Some traditional leaders have already agreed in principle to allocate parts of their land to us,” he said.