Times have changed; this is evident with a handful of developments that has been taking place within our communities over the years. Gone are the days where one has to board a taxi to town to do shopping, banking or to wine and dine for that matter.
Orange Farm embraced the day where an announcement that a shopping mall will be build but up until now developments had been brought to a halt and in-fighting amongst those who are at the helm is visible which is believed to be politically motivated.
As it stand only phase three which will accommodate a cash and carry outlet is under construction and the actual mall will commence early next year. About 3 500 employment opportunities will be created by the stores while a further 1 800 as a result of construction. Seven squared meters stalls will be erected for hawkers.
Town Square shopping mall, which will consist of 158 retail stores and house a local radio station is said to be the best thing that will happen to the dusty streets of Orange Farm but it has amassed a lot of unnecessary attention before it even see its foundation being laid.
A spate of protests has been the order of the day which resulted in a drop down of tools after leaders from a ruling party’s youth league were alleged to have aired their dissatisfaction for their ward councillor not been hired seeing that the mall is going to be situated right in their ward.
Orange Farm Greater Business Forum moved swiftly by calling a meeting with the members of the community to ease their anger and assure them of their capability to see the project through.
Ward 3 Chairperson, Makhosonke and his cronies are alleged to have demanded seventy percent ownership of the mall as it in their ward while further reports are that certain people wanted the Economic Development Forum to vacate and let the trust fund take over.
Thenjwa Nene, President of Economic Development Forum which is tasked with overseeing the completion of the mall on behalf of the community said “We halted construction due to threats we received on the first day from certain individuals to torch equipment hence they were taken away and rumours that jobs were available, in our last meeting each ward submitted a list of people whom will be interviewed for jobs within the structure and then be deployed on site. Five Community Liaison Officers with a reported salary of around R 18 000 per month were interested but due to financial constraints we went back and revisited the matter”
Attempts to get hold of Orange Farm Youth league’s comment proved futile.
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