NOTHING WRONG AT MKHOSI TOWNSHIP - HUMAN SETTLEMENTS AUTHORITY

MANZINI – There is nothing wrong with the developments at Mkhosi Township, says the Director of Human Settlements Authority.

Bhekithemba Matsebula, while making submissions before the Zonke Magagula-led Commission of Enquiry on the Mkhosi Township Petition, said as far as the Human Settlements Authority was concerned; all the due processes were followed by the Manzini Municipal Council. 

“The municipality applied for a product and the product was eventually delivered; regardless of the time lapse,” he said.

Matsebula was responding to a question posed by a member of the commission, William Ndlela, who sought to establish if the development of Mkhosi Township was orderly or messy.

Matsebula explained to the commission that the Human Settlements Authority considered the processes that needed to be followed when seeking to develop a human settlement as it was the end-product was expected to be delivered.

“We may not consider the years taken to complete the product as we are more concerned with all the processes being fully complied with. We are against a substandardisation of infrastructure,” he said.

Furthermore, he submitted to the commission that his entity was happy with the end result (Mkhosi Township).  Matsebula said all procedures were followed by the Manzini Municipal Council; however, it was only the latter that could explain the cause of the time lag. 

He said the Human Settlements Authority approved establishment of Mkhosi Township in July 1999 and the approval of the human settlement location had four conditions.

The first condition was that all infrastructure must be in place and that no plot should be sold until all infrastructure was in place. Also, another condition was that all public amenities must be transferred to government while the last condition was that plots could not be sold before the general plan was in place.

When this conditional approval by the Human Settlement Authority was made, Matsebula said there were 162 plots that were said were to be available.

However, in July 2010, Matsebula said the municipality submitted another application to the Human Settlements Authority. He said the second application had alterations as the scope of the township had changed. 

“In November 2010, the Human Settlements Authority wrote to the municipality telling it to redesign the township so that it includes a road network and all other infrastructure. The municipality was also told to provide stream buffer zones within the township in line with the Natural Resources Act,” he said.

Plans

Matsebula said the municipality was also informed that the general plans of the initial layout plan were approved by the Surveyor General on September 28, 2001. 

Therefore, he said, before the submissions of the revised survey plans and layout diagrams to the Surveyor General’s Office, the municipality was advised to lodge an application for withdrawal of the approved general plans. 

He said this was because the new plans could affect the plot sizes that had been previously pegged by the municipality. When Ndlela sought to establish from Matsebula whether his entity was aware that there were plots that had been provisionally allocated to prospective property owners, he responded by stating that he was not sure. Matsebula said it was only the developer who could avail information of what was happening on the ground. He further informed the commission that the high number of plots that were partitioned in 2010 answered the question why the plots had suddenly dwindled in size.

The application by the municipality made in 2010 was approved in March 2011. He said when this approval was endorsed by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, through his entity, there was one new condition.

This condition, he said, was that the old boundary perks demarcating the plots, which were installed after the first approval of the township, should be removed in order to avoid any future disputes.

He said the last approval was for a township with 217 residential plots, one commercial, one institutional and one public open space. This tallies to 220 plots. 

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