Construction of the new Belmont Valley golf estate will start in two weeks, according to the developer. But the municipality hasn't signed on the dotted line, with everything hinging on proposed upgrades to the sewerage works.
Construction of the new Belmont Valley golf estate will start in two weeks, according to the developer. But the municipality hasn't signed on the dotted line, with everything hinging on proposed upgrades to the sewerage works.
David Davies, of project management company Izenzo, says the new Belmont Valley golf course – set to trigger a chain of building development that will change the face of Grahamstown – is in the final stages of approval.
Planned for the R500 million complex are housing, a shopping mall and soccer and agricultural academies. Crucial to the project is an upgrade to the city’s waste-water treatment plant.
Also linked to Izenzo's ambitious plans are a middle-income housing development on the site of the current golf course, and an upgrade of the Grahamstown airport to allow the introduction of commercial flights to Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban.
“Civil aviation authorities are busy looking at their runway to see what needs to be done to fly commercial airlines. These flights will be on a weekly basis,” said Davies, who could not confirm a timeline for these plans.
Izenzo is the majority shareholder of the Belmont Development Company. Davies said Izenzo had met representatives from the municipality last week. They had submitted a report on the current status of the Belmont Valley sewerage plant earlier this year.
Davies said it would take at least 18 months to finish the new golf course. After that, Izenzo would start building housing on the old golf course. Makana's Director of Technical Services, Thembinkosi Myalato, said they were waiting for an evaluation from a Makana-appointed consultant on the status of the sewage works.
“We met with Izenzo Consulting and now we are doing our investigation into their funding model, We appointed a consultant to evaluate the plant," Myalato said. "Also from my side, I am looking at the existing municipal commitment (Development Bank of Southern Africa loan) and municipal revenue. I don't want to put the municipality under pressure by getting another loan without checking what will be the impact,” he said.
Myalato added that they needed to be able to pay the salaries of employees and deliver other services to the community before they committed themselves to the proposed public-private partnership with Izenzo.
He emphasised that they had not yet signed the public-private partnership agreement.
