Human Settlements
With reference to his reply to interpellation 1 of 20 May 2021:
(1) (a) Which department in the City of Cape Town made the offers to purchase to the seller, (b) if it was the City’s Property Management Department, under which acquiring department’s request or instruction were these offers made, (c) which erven were acquired by the Housing Development Agency(HDA) and (d) what was the purchase price;
(2) whether his Department relies on the City’s alleged offer to determine the purchase price; if so, what are the relevant details; if not,
(3) whether it obtained its own valuations; if so, (a) which valuers provided the valuations and (b) what were the valuations;
(4) (a) which entity paid for the purchase, (b) why did the City allege its land acquisition process would “take too long” and (c) if the City’s processes would “take too long”, why did the City allegedly make two offers to purchase;
(5) whether his Department was aware that the department responsible for land acquisition for housing in the City of Cape Town (a) did not support the acquisition or purchase of the property and (b) was of the view that the property was overpriced; if so, why did the provincial Department proceed with the purchase?
(1)(a) My department assumes that the City’s Property Management Department
made the offers to purchase.
(b)My department is unable to provide comments in respect of questions as we
are not privy to the City of Cape Town’s internal approval processes.
(c) Erven 35163, 35164, 35165, 35166, 35167, 35168, 35169, 35170, 35171,
35172,35173, 35174, 35148 and RE/Erf 38368, Milnerton.
(d) The purchase price was R64.6M.
(2) No, my department does not rely on evaluation commissioned by external
parties to determine purchase price.
(3)(a) The HDA appointed Tashoma Property Valuers & Consultants CC and Equitas Valuation Pty Ltd in May 2018 to value the subject properties.
(b)Tashoma’s valuation report show a value of R71,054,750. Equitas’ valuation report shows a value of R48,584,000. The Equitas’ initial valuation was R33m (rounded R17m + rounded R16m). The aforementioned valuation was later (July 2020) amended as one of the properties was not included in said valuation. Their revised valuation is thus (R17m + R16m + a further R16m), which total R48,584,000 or rounded off to R49m
(4)(a) My department made funding available to the HDA to purchase the properties.
(b)My department was not privy to the discussions on City’s internal land acquisitions processes which resulted in them deciding not to pursue the acquisition of the properties in question.
(c) The City of Cape Town would be best placed to provide a response in this regard.
(5)(a) No. However, my department received a report from the City’s Spatial Planning and Urban Design Department which supported housing development on the subject properties as well as the acquisition thereof.
(b)The City conducted its own valuation dated 14 September 2017, which valued the properties at R64M. In addition, an assessment done by the HDA, deemed the properties suitable for human settlement development. The HDA was then tasked to negotiate a purchase price. The agreed purchase price is considered to be market related.
