Chris Willemse (Chair)

In the mid 1990’s, a developer was trying to erect a block of flats in the middle of our single residential neighbourhood. What was particularly alarming, was the manner in which the City planners and politicians were supporting this development, without any consideration for the owners of property in the area. As neighbours, we successfully interdicted the proposal and when the officials/politicians approved a “revised" (but still the same) scheme, I joined the CBCRA (then CBRRA) to continue the fight. The result was one of the most quoted property cases in SA: The so-called First Crescent Case of CBRRA v Provincial Minister of Planning (6594/98 of 1998). We won the case and, in the words of a prominent CT lawyer, established more property law than Parliament had to date. It is important that individuals actively support civic work. Politicians and bureaucrats, left to their own devices, will never benefit society as a whole – only their own narrow interests – and therefore need to be monitored on a constant basis. The old saying, that bad things happen when good people do nothing is as important today as it ever was.