HERMANUS - Overstrand Municipality is to set up a manned kiosk at the entrance from Schulphoek Road to control access to the area. In a progress report on the Schulphoek Housing Project to Council today (Wednesday 30 March 2022), the Municipal Manager, Mr Dean O’Neill, stated that for the current financial year this security function will be funded from savings. This flowed forth from an action plan for the Schulphoek development that was agreed upon between the Executive Mayor, Ald Annelie Rabie, and the Western Cape Minister of Human Settlements, Mr Tertuis Simmers, on 31 January 2022. Another major development in terms of this action plan, was the signing on 28 February 2022 of a Land Availability Agreement (LAA) between the Overstrand Municipality and the Department of Human Settlements (DoHS). In terms of this, the Schulphoek land will be made available to the DoHS for housing projects and the municipality will be responsible for the security services to ensure that no further dwellings are erected and to demolish any unfinished dwellings timeously. Further, it was agreed that eviction proceedings will be the last resort as, by its nature, it is a very expensive exercise. However, an envisaged follow-up meeting between the Municipality and the Western Cape Department of Human Settlements (DoHS) within a week after the signing of the LAA to discuss and agree upon securing the perimeter of the site, managing further land invasions and the erection of appropriate signage has not materialized yet. Several requests to hold this meeting have been sent to the department, Mr O’Neill reported.
