Good Hope Centre plan ‘not in city’s best interest’
The Cape Town city council has been given 15 days to respond to an ugent interdict seeking to stop the leasing of the Good Hope Centre as a film studio.
|||Cape Town - The Cape Town city council has been given 15 days to file an answering affidavit in the Western Cape High Court in response to an urgent interdict being sought by the Southern African Textile Workers’ Union (Sactwu) to stop the leasing of the Good Hope Centre as a film studio.
Sactwu wants the court to restrain the council from making any more structural changes to the centre, arguing they might be irreversible and make the space unsuitable for public events.
The tender window to lease the Good Hope Centre for two years and 11 months, closes on Thursday.
Mayoral committee member for tourism, events and economic development Garreth Bloor has confirmed the city council had received notice from Sactwu’s lawyer that the union also intended to file a review application with the court.
In a letter to the council, lawyer Shaheed Isaacs said the council had not followed the necessary procedure before taking the decision to close the centre for public use.
The Bo-Kaap Ratepayers and Civic Association, the Cape Malay Choir Board and the District Six Working Committee, which plan to join Sactwu in the application, will argue that the decision was “unreasonable and not in the best interests of the City of Cape Town”.
In its interdict application, Sactwucontends that the mayor had ignored a memorandum of demand from workers in April 2015, to initiate a public participation process before deciding on the centre's future. Sactwu wants an interim interdict for at least three months while it prepares for the review application.
Bloor said the adjudication timelines of the bids it will receive this week, would be affected by the pending court cases.
According to an expenditure report considered by the Good Hope Subcouncil yesterday, the council had budgeted R6.5 million to upgrade the Good Hope Centre in this financial year. By the end of April, it had spent R4.3m.
The report noted that the contractor working on site had already removed the lifts to make way for new ones.
There had been a slight delay in the import and delivery of equipment required to continue with the work, but it was estimated the equipment would be on site by the end of the month.
The installation of new lifts was expected to be concluded by mid-June, the report said. Council approval for the film studio tender was granted in March despite objections from opposition parties.
The city council held a briefing meeting with potential bidders last month after advertising the tender on April 15.
In its interdict application, Sactwu said the safety and security of last year’s Spring Queen Pageant had been affected by the closure of the Good Hope Centre. Guests had been robbed at knifepoint, and people entered the Athlone Stadium without paying because it had been impossible to secure the venue adequately.
Cape Argus