The controversial development of RDP housing at the top of the Soutpansberg at Songozwi Village resurfaced recently during a meeting between concerned groups and the Makhado Municipality, who is responsible for the development.

At the meeting, the various stakeholders were supposed to discuss the environmental impact assessment (EIA) that is to be done regarding the development of more RDP houses at Songozwi. To many of the stakeholders, this procedure amounts to putting the cart before the horse as the EIA should have been done before any development took place.

Zoutpansberger learnt from stakeholders who attended the meeting that the municipality strongly objected to the completed development of 12 RDP houses being labelled as “illegal”. According to the delegates, the municipal representatives indicated that “they are in the process of dealing with the legalities”. Another concerned party remarked that this way of doing things was extremely cynical: “You first commit an unlawful act and, when this is pointed out to you, you work towards changing the law, so that your unlawful act now becomes legal, ret-roactively.”

According to a report submitted by John Rosmarin before the earlier development of the 12 RDP houses, “the proposed project must take cognizance of the principles and recommendations expressed in the Vhembe Biosphere Reserve report. It should be noted that the Biosphere has been formally approved by the Limpopo Government, Department of Environment and Tourism (DEAT) and by UNESCO.

“The Biosphere application was formulated by the Vhembe Biosphere Initiative Committee, which consisted of a cross section of role players and stakeholders in the province and the local Vhembe District. This policy document therefore reflects the views of key stakeholders and role players in the area ... The proposed housing development would appear to be in conflict with the land uses recommended in the schedule.”

These recommendations were ignored by the municipality and the 12 RDP houses were constructed. After the objections raised by concerned parties forced the municipality to reconsider the construction of more houses at the historically valuable site, the above meeting was called. In what appears to be its standard modus operandi, the municipality paid no attention to the objections raised and used the meeting to inform those present that the development will go ahead.