The municipality says they will not deliver basic services to a residential compound situated in Fingo Village. The issue has resulted in a of a tug-of-war between the council and the Methodist Church of Southern Africa (MCSA).
The municipality says they will not deliver basic services to a residential compound situated in Fingo Village. The issue has resulted in a of a tug-of-war between the council and the Methodist Church of Southern Africa (MCSA).
Makana Municipality spokesperson Thandy Matebese says the municipality still has to respond to settlement proposals put forward by the church after they have gone through all the due processes.
He did not explain what the council processes are. He added that in June 2009 Makana Municipality instructed Whitesides Attorneys to take legal action against the church and that the church then requested an opportunity to make settlement proposals.
The municipality had accused the church of reneging on a land swop deal after it acquired the land between Siphiwo Mawayi Post Office and the Department of Social Development offices in Joza.
This deal was in return for handing over the glebe residential compound opposite BB Zondani Hall. Matebese said a meeting has been scheduled for next month where the municipality and the church’s national leadership will discuss the matter.
“The office of the presiding bishop, which according to the constitution of the church has the sole responsibility to handle all property transactions, has expressed willingness to go ahead with the transfers,” he explained.
“However the local branch, in contradiction with the church’s constitution, has continued to attempt to stop the proposed transfer.”
However, Rev Vuyani Nyobole, the MCSA general secratary, denied that the church was reneging on the deal. “The [transfer]agreement was signed in 2004 and is with their [municipality’s] lawyers,” he told Grocott’s Mail.
Early last month Whitesides Attorneys wrote to the municipality requesting instructions on the church’s settlement proposals.
In the correspondence attorney Brenda Amsterdam said she had forwarded the church’s letter to the municipality last November and that she has not received a response yet.
“In essence, if the municipality accepts the church’s settlement proposals or a variation thereof there is nothing that stops the municipality from proceeding with the exchange transfer,” she wrote.
Amsterdam also asked the municipality whether the sites that will eventually be subdivided will be awarded to the glebe residents.
She refused to comment when Grocott’s Mail contacted her. According to a deed of sale agreement signed by both institutions on 4 May 2004, the church handed over the glebe to the municipality.
The agreement, a copy of which is in the possession of Grocott’s Mail, was signed by former Municipal Manager Pravine Naidoo and the then Presiding Bishop of the Methodist Church Ivan Abrahams.
The church wrote to Amsterdam in November confirming the settlement proposals as follows: The church will sign all the necessary documents to effect the exchange and transfer of the properties;
In return the municipality has to write off any outstanding debt owed to the municipality owed to it in respect of the two properties and;
The municipality has to pay the costs of the transfers and land surveying. Ward 9 councillor Mxolisi Ntshiba acknowledged that nothing is being done about the glebe.
He accused the municipality’s administrators of not doing their job arguing that they are delaying the process of developing the glebe area.
“I have done all that I could do on my part and I’m still fighting this battle like a hunting lion,” he added. He believes that the work of the officials is in progress but he also questions how long it will take for them to start working on these development as the negotiations between the two institutions started in 2002.
