Questions over stalled Diep River housing project
Off-plan sales for what is billed as an “inclusionary housing scheme” near the Diep River train station started in 2022, but two years later, only trenches and mounds of sand have replaced the railway houses torn down to make way for it, and the building plans still need City approval.
Tutili Place, according to a website promoting the development, will have 71 studio or one-bedroom flats with 59 of them described as “inclusionary” and the remaining 12 being for the open market, in its first phase. There will be 151 parking bays, and on-site amenities will include a grocery store, restaurant, laundromat, internet café, hair-and-nail salon, a garden and drying yard.
According to the the lead developers, Itakane Trading 71 (Pty) Ltd, owned by architect Mlamli Magqwaka, the one-bedroom “inclusionary” flats had been priced from R581 000 for those earning no more than R18 000 a month.
The first phase has been sold out, according to the website but nothing has been built.
The triangle-shaped property faces De Waal Road and is nestled between Avondale Terrace and Massinger Road. Hoarding screens the site from the street, but mounds of sand can be seen over it.
According to residents, three houses on the railway land were demolished in early 2023, but work stopped three-to-four months later in April when the billboards advertising the development also vanished.
“It was a very low-input operation. Six guys manually tearing the houses down, no machinery and one lone digger. It went on for four months, and there was a lot of noise and dust. The rubble is still there. Then they started excavating but very shallowly. So we were wondering, how can you have this kind of shallow foundation for a four-storey building?” said Gudrun Oberprieler, who lives in a nearby road.
Fearing the stalled development would hurt their property values, residents sought answers from the developer.
Jarred Venter, another resident, said there were too many red flags when he spoke to Mr Magqwaka.
“When you ask him what's the plan, when are they planning on finishing, he couldn't give an answer to that. He just kept on saying we mustn't worry, there is money, this project is going to carry on building again. There is a little bit of red tape, that’s how these things go, but I said to him there are other developments in the area that just break ground, give it three or four months, they are already building.”
Mr Magqwaka told the Bulletin that the City still had to approve building plans. Those, he added, had been submitted by the Passenger Rail Agency of South Africa (Prasa), which still owned the site, although he had a lease that permitted him to build while the transfer of the property to his company was pending.
“Based on the engineer’s instructions, we had to dig a one-metre platform, take out all the soil. Hence you see the heaps of sand there because we dug out all to a metre, and sometimes more, depending on the inclination of the natural ground.
“The ground is ready now, but we are just waiting for the final stamp of approval on the building plans. We can only build once the plans have been fully approved. All the departments of the City have approved the plans, so the plans are just sitting with the final official to just stamp them, but there is some technicality that they are waiting for.”
He conceded the construction team was small - the Bulletin counted ten workers at the site last month - and said he had been personally funding operations while he waited for the administrative process to be completed.
Once building work started, it should take 10 months to a year to complete, he said.
Ward councillor Carmen Siebritz said she had been asking questions about the development since it had been brought to her attention in 2022.
“Mr Magqwaka indicated that they started excavation in the hope that building plans would be approved sooner and that they're now forced to take staff off site until such approval is granted, adding that there were minor issues in respect of funding from the national government as well as the transfer of the land from Prasa to the company.
“He further states that they've now reached the point where the only outstanding information is the attorney’s letter confirming lodging of the transfer application. The validity of such application lapses on Wednesday September 11.”
The City and Prasa did not respond to questions by time of publication.
