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Members of the Rama community celebrate the reconsolidation
and rezoning of the community’s 470ha of ancestral land near
Pretoria, which opens the way for the creation of a bustling new
town with its own shops, schools, clinics, churches, parks and other
community facilities as well as some 10 000 new homes.
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Members of the Rama community are celebrating the recent conclusion of
the town planning process that means their ancestral land, which lies
22km to the north-west of Pretoria, has successfully been re-consolidated
and renamed Rama City.
The community was forcibly removed from the land in 1965 but succeeded
in a claim to have it restored in 1998. However, it had by then been divided
and incorporated into two separate farms – a process which needed
to be reversed before it could be properly registered to the community
and rezoned for development.
This has now been done and is an important step forward in the plan to
transform the 470ha of land into a bustling new town with its own shops,
schools, clinics, churches, parks and other community facilities as well
as some 10 000 new homes.
This mixed-use development is being undertaken by the Rama Community
Property Association in partnership with professional property development
company Rama Horizon Developments, and is expected to take about 15 years
to complete, at a cost of several billion rand.
RCPA executive committee chairman Hendrik Nhtite says the formation of
this partnership is a groundbreaking move that could provide a resettlement
and development blueprint for other communities that were victims of forced
removals under the apartheid government and have now successfully reclaimed
their land.
“But even more important,” he says, “is that our plans
will unlock the real value of our land for the Rama community. As part
of our agreement with the developer, an extensive training programme is
being established to provide members of our community with new and valuable
skills, not only in the building and construction fields but in information
technology, design, communication and management.
“In addition, the establishment of a new town will create many new
business opportunities as local demand grows for a wide variety of goods
and services. There will be excellent new opportunities for entrepreneurs.
“And on top of that, we will be creating a place where the residents
can enjoy every aspect of community life – like schooling, shopping,
sport and going to church – all within easy reach of their own homes.
It will be a real town with a real heart.”
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Newsletter:
3 February 2012 to 10 February 2012 - Krugersdorp, Gauteng, South Africa
