Cape holds up historic Villa plan

The Western Cape provincial heritage committee has been given a roasting by Oasis Asset Management after another delay in deciding the way forward on restoring the historic Rocklands Villa in University Estate.

Nazeem Ebrahim, Oasis's deputy chairman, last week accused the authorities of dishonesty and lying when it came to dealing with the development. He says he will now call on Premier Helen Zille to investigate who the powerful people are who have consistently hindered them from developing the land.

Ebrahim said Oasis, the city and heritage authorities agreed that the villa did not have heritage status as implied previously by heritage authorities. The provisional status had lapsed, and neither was the building graded in terms of heritage law, said Ebrahim.

Oasis was called before a special meeting of Heritage Western Cape's Built Environment and Landscape Committee on Friday, where it was expected that a decision would be made on the future of the site.

The company expected to hear what the way forward would be after previously submitting a number of documents to the committee.

Instead they and their independent heritage architects, after being kept waiting for an 90 minutes, were asked by acting chairman Cecil le Fleur for a copy of the Belcom-approved plans for the development. Le Fleur said it would make a decision on Thursday.

Ebrahim asked that they be given an opportunity to state their case.

Initially Le Fleur declined but Ebrahim insisted, saying they had acted in terms of a decision of the City of Cape Town and that he wanted to place the facts on the table so that the committee could understand their position.

He said there was agreement that while the house was more than 60 years old, the heritage proclamation had lapsed, and the process of getting the development off the ground had dragged on for 12 years and been beset by problems.

Ebrahim accused the committee secretariat of not replying to correspondence. He also said Heritage Western Cape officials had never set foot on the site.

"We were given an indication that the house was more than 60 years old. We accepted that, but then the grading lapsed and yet there is still no resolution. We have approval by the city."

Ebrahim accused the committee of treating them "with disdain". He said Ossie Gonsalves, the city's Table Bay district manager for planning and building development, was also on record as saying the roof had to be removed. Oasis had a chronological sequence of events which showed the waste of time, lies and dishonesty on the part of city and provincial officials, Ebrahim alleged.

Sean Arendorff, an independent heritage consultant, said it was clear that Oasis had intended restoring the house.

Belcom requested a certified copy of the plans before making a decision.

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