By Tabelo Timse

Despite agreeing to sell their properties to make way for the redevelopment of Njoli Square in Kwazakhele, Port Elizabeth residents are starting to doubt that the second phase of the project will ever get off the ground.

Xolelwa Nyembezi, an unemployed mother of one, said she had agreed to move house years ago.

“Regular meetings are held to inform us, but we are not told of timeframes, we don‘t know where the delay is as everything is up to the municipality.”

In the draft budget for the next four years about R120-million has been allocated to the project. Of this, about R20-million has been earmarked for 2008/2009.

The redevelopment of Njoli square was identified as one of the flagship projects that the municipality wanted to promote as part of its Vision 2020 projects.

The concept envisaged the transformation of the Njoli Square precinct with the introduction of a large traffic circle with various civic, public transport, commercial (formal and informal) and tourism facilities housed within a domeshaped building in the centre of the traffic circle.

A report tabled at a council meeting last week, prepared by executive mayor Nondumiso Maphazi, stated that the municipality had secured substantial funding for the implementation of a bus rapid transport system in the city.

Njoli square would form a key interchange point in this system and a large terminus is to be constructed there.

“It is therefore of critical importance that the implementation of the proposed development proceeds as a matter of urgency, if the deadlines for the 2010 Soccer World Cup are to be met,” said the report.

The proposed development in its current form will affect 51 private properties which need to be acquired and consolidated. In addition, there are 45 households living in backyards on the affected properties that also need to be relocated to make way for the development, said the report.

Properties around Njoli square, where development would be done, were being acquired at market value, the highest pay-out per house being R250000 plus an additional voluntary payment of 10 percent, while the lowest was R150000 plus 10%.

Another resident Zukiswa Ngiyana, also unemployed, said she did not believe the municipality would ever implement the project.

Source: The Herald