Whether or not there was enough water for the Roodefontein development should not have held up his department’s decision on its approval, former Western Cape environment provincial minister David Malatsi said on Thursday.
He was testifying in the Bellville Regional Court, where he and former premier Peter Marais face corruption charges stemming from donations of R400 000 by Roodefontein’s would-be developer, Riccardo Agusta, to the New National Party.
Under questioning from prosecutor Bruce Morrison, Malatsi defended his April 2002 orders to a department official, Ingrid Coetzee, to make a decision on the Roodefontein application despite her protestations that she was not in a position to do so.
Asked what made him believe she could make a decision, he said the fact that 18 months had already elapsed since the application was lodged, and ”the documentation on the case”.
Morrison said that by Malatsi’s own admission, he had not, at that stage read the documentation.
He asked Malatsi whether he agreed there had been a water problem with Roodefontein, planned as a golf estate on the outskirts of Plettenberg Bay.
Malatsi said Plettenberg Bay as a whole had always had a water problem, but that had not stopped development there.
The issue of water for Roodefontein had been one for the local municipality to deal with.
”To me the problem of water was being addressed by the council,” he said.
He said that if he built a house in Cape Town, he could not be expected to tell the municipality where it should get water from. Water is a bulk service rendered by the municipality.
Told by Morrison that there was no comparison between a single home and a golf estate — Roodefontein was to have 440 dwelling units and an 18-hole golf course — which consumed millions of litres of water, he said: ”There is a comparison. Those were dwelling units that were going to be used by people.”
He said that after he withdrew Coetzee’s delegated authority to make decisions, her superior, Dipolelo Elford, had been able a few days later to reach a decision on Roodefontein based on the same information available to Coetzee.
Morrison said Elford’s decision, a go-ahead for the development, had been conditional on enough water being available, and that Elford had also told the court that she realised it would be a ”career-limiting move” not to issue a decision.
”No comment,” said Malatsi.
The case continues on Monday. — Sapa