FCC To Terminate Market Developer�s Lease
Chakalisa Dube | Monday September 4, 2017 16:20
The council leased the market facility to Equality Properties holdings in 2004. Under the lease agreement, Equality was supposed to refurbish the market and turn it into a new state of the art Central Business District (CBD).
“The company was given a seven day termination notice and it will expire next week Wednesday. It has failed to comply with certain aspects of the lease agreement which is why the council want to terminate the agreement,” FCC senior public relations officer, Joseph Wasubera told Monitor Business in an interview.
Early this year the council shunned a proposal by Equality to bond the central market plot. During a full council meeting, mayor Sylvia Muzila said the company had written to the council asking for facilitation on registering a bond of the plot to a commercial bank in order to secure funds for development.
Muzila noted that the demands by Equality were not in order and the FCC had written the company a default notice.
“In addition, allowing the company to bond the plot is very risky because it will mean that the FCC will lose it when the developer default on paying the bank. We will have a look at the lease agreement and see what action we can take against the developer if he delays developing the plot,” Muzila said at the time.
On Friday, Itekeng councillor Lesego Kwambala tabled a motion calling for the council to terminate the central market lease because the developer had taken too long to develop the plot. The lack of development of the market has often been a source of worry to the councillors.
Kwambala also said that it is not a wise move to lease the plot when the council is struggling to find a suitable space for vending activities in the city. He said the removal of the market vendors would worsen the situation. However the motion was halted after the city clerk, Mompati Seleka indicated that the council has already written a termination notice to the developer. Seleka said that councillors should wait for the outcomes of interactions between Equality and the FCC regarding the notice of termination.
The FCC ordered the vendors to vacate the stalls at the end of October last year in order to pave way for the development of the market plot, but were later given an indefinite extension.Vendors have often expressed reluctance to move citing lack of a suitable operational space in other parts of the city.