26 February 2004 Press Release CITY WELCOMES THE COURT RULING The City of Johannesburg welcomes the ruling on the review application served before the Johannesburg High Court on Monday. The case brought forward by the Jukskei Crocodile Catchment Area forum (JCCA) was dismissed with costs. According to the agreement, Council will expropriate the land belonging to Village Farm Administrators (Pty) Ltd thereby reaching a settlement with the organisation concerned. This settlement agreement has been made an order of the Court. In an effort to expedite the matter, the city has arranged a special Mayoral Committee meeting this afternoon to consider a report on the expropriation of the land. If the Mayoral Committee confirms the recommendation to expropriate, the matter will be serve before Council on Thursday for a final decision on the matter. However there is still one appellant to be heard by the Townships Board as part of the town planning procedure. The appellant, Mr Rob Bradley, has been part of the planning process since 1997. His main concern is that the environment might be affected detrimentally should the Council not be firm and pro-active with regards to the management of the area in order to prevent the area once Cosmo City has been developed. In this regard the City is serious about its commitment towards the City residents and intends to meets its obligations. Based on this commitment, the City is anxious to meet with Mr Bradley and see how his concerns can be addressed satisfactorily. Should the city be able to satisfy Mr Bradley's concerns, he will have the option to withdraw his appeal and this will pave way for the project to proceed immediately. If proposals put forward does not satisfy Mr Bradley, his arguments will be heard on Wednesday and Thursday 10/11 March 2004. The MEC: Development Planning and Local Government will then make a final decision by end of July 2004 as prescribed by the law. The commencement of this project is therefore eminent and the City is optimistic that it will proceed based on all the hard work done so far. ENDS Nthatisi Modingoane Media Liaison Officer CITY OF JOHANNESBURG Tel: (011) 407 7354 Fax: 403 3494 Cell: 082 467 9228 E-mail: nthatisem@joburg.org.za