Grocott's Mail's Nomfundo Lukwe and Stephen Penney took a tour of what is set to be the jewel in the crown of project management company Izenzo's Grahamstown development initiatives.
Grocott's Mail's Nomfundo Lukwe and Stephen Penney took a tour of what is set to be the jewel in the crown of project management company Izenzo's Grahamstown development initiatives.
Exactly two years ago, developer David Davies was waiting for Makana Municipality to sign an agreement for a public-private partnership that would see him undertake extensive upgrades to the city sewage works in exchange for planning permission for several major developments.
Now, the clubhouse and 12 holes of the new Belmont Valley golf course are almost complete. In a December 2012 interview with Grocott's Mail, Davies said the golf course would trigger a chain of building development that will change the face of Grahamstown.
This week, he said this phase would be complete by mid-2015. Planned for the R500 million Belmont Valley complex are housing, a shopping mall and soccer and agricultural academies.
Also linked to Izenzo's ambitious plans are a middle-income housing development on the site of the current Cradock Road golf course. Izenzo is the majority shareholder of the Belmont Development Company.
The upgrade of the Grahamstown airport to allow the introduction of commercial flights to Cape Town, Johannesburg and Durban is part of the logistical support for planned growth for the region. The first step towards this is the planned introduction of scheduled flights by aircraft operator CemAir.
The company's CEO Miles van der Molen met stakeholders in Grahamstown this week. CemAir plans to launch scheduled flights between Grahamstown and Jo'burg in March.
The clubhouse and 12 holes should be complete by January. The remainder of the golf course project is due for completion in June. Steve Birt, committee member of the Grahamstown Golf Club, said yesterday they are taking over the project mid-year. The 18-hole course designed by Yates Landscapes will have overnight accommodation, but won't offer long-term stays.
Makana has undertaken to upgrade the rough gravel road through Belmont Valley once the development is complete, Davies said. Crucial to the development plans is an upgrade to the city’s waste-water treatment plant, which Izenzo offered to do in a private-public partnership with the local authority.
Davies said this week that the process had been delayed by Makana Municipality's going under administration. He said Izenzo was still in discussion with the municipality about the sewage works upgrade.
In a December 2012 interview with Grocott's Mail, technical and Infrastructure services director Thembinkosi Myalato said they had appointed an engineer to do a feasibility study to be presented to the Department of Water Affairs.
"If we get a commitment from the department to give us funding, even if they say for example they will give us funding in 2016/17 financial year, we will enter into a public-private partnership with the developers and then pay them back when we get the money," Myalato said at the time.
Further details about the current funding model were not available at the time of going to press. Water from the Bloukrans River, which flows through Belmont Valley and carries treated effluent and storm water from Grahamstown, will be used to irrigate the golf course, Davies said.
He said a borehole on the premises that produces 22 500 litres of fresh water an hour means the golf course development is self sufficient and won't rely on municipal water.
