Chris van Gass

Cape Correspondent

CAPE TOWN — Mayor Nomaindia Mfeketo has revived a controversial decision to sell prime council coastal land at Big Bay, two months after the process was halted following a finding by forensic auditors that it was "flawed".

Mfeketo said yesterday that a new "open competitive process" for selling the 17 high-value land parcels on the Atlantic seaboard north of the city would be started as soon as possible, but with much stricter conditions.

She also said the land should be sold "preferably to black people".

Mfeketo said that the new process to dispose of the land met the requirements of "fairness and transparency", two principles forensic auditors said were lacking when they advised that the original sale be stopped in February.

During an investigation it was found that the selection process of the black buyers, many with close links to African National Congress, was "not objective, transparent, inclusive, uniform or measurable".

This was because the council had not yet formulated a black economic empowerment policy on land sales and that the 17 black developers had been "arbitrarily" identified.

The project to sell the mostly sea-facing plots "out of hand", without following normal tender procedures, was flawed, the auditors found. A council official was blamed for the blunder.

Mfeketo said the new process would also further the city’s "strategic objectives of increasing broad-based and effective participation of black people in the economy".

As an additional mechanism to ensure "accountability and transparency", Mfeketo said that the full council would approve the successful offers. In the new round, the council will determine a reserve price for each parcel of land and advertise in local newspapers calling for expressions of interest.