City of Cape Town welcomes eviction order for Castle of Good Hope

The City of Cape Town has welcomed the eviction order to remove unlawful occupants around the Castle of Good Hope in the CBD. With the High Court granting the order to the Department of Public Works, the illegal occupants have until the 17th of October to vacate the site. For several years the Castle of Good Hope in Cape Town seems to be the site for unlawful occupations. Public Works Minister Dean Macpherson says the site has been a source of crime in the CBD.

Macpherson says, “Public assets for public good. I don’t want our assets to be contributing to crime and grime in your city i don’t want our assets to be lowering the value of properties in your city I want them to be used for public good and for a long time. We have seen the decay and destruction of state-owned properties which we are just no longer willing to accept.
According to Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis, a dignified transitional shelter will be provided at City-run Safe Spaces for the people, who are removed from the castle if they request assistance.

“Where other government departments have not properly protected their land, we don’t think that it’s right for the city to stump up the costs for affordable accommodation always. We have done so in the case of the Castle even though it’s not our land, because we want to get that moving. But obviously, there’s a limit to the amount of space that we have and the property that we have for those relocations.

Macpherson says his department is on a drive to use the assets it holds to generate an income, which can be used to provide services to South Africans.

“It is unthinkable that we are the largest landlord in this country. we have more than R150 billion of assets and we don’t generate any income from that to be used for social services. no asset management business would run like this and we have got to start getting into that space of running our assets to generate income so that we can use that for the important projects of building schools, hospitals, clinics and police stations,” Macpherson stresses.

A technical committee comprising representatives from the Department of Public Works and the City will be set up to deal with other possible eviction orders at various sites in Cape Town, that they will apply for.

Source: eNCA

In other news – Sello Motloung’s funeral service confirmed

The Motloung family spokesperson, confirmed to the publication that there would no memorial service per the actor’s wishes. Friends and family of the star will gather at his home in Kempton Park to say their goodbyes before the Requiem Mass in Alexandra.

Sello Motloung

The family of the Generations and The Wife actor confirms in a statement to TshisaLIVE that he died on Sunday, 15 September. Read more

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