Posh Soshanguve mall opens its doors

23-05-2014
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Pretoria News
Source

Soshanguve Crossing, the gigantic shopping mall that opened on the north-western corner of Ruth First Road and Aubrey Matlala Street yesterday, is more than just another typical township mall.

Soshanguve Crossing was officially opened for business yesterday.

Co-owner Sydney Malabie told guests at the official opening his vision was to create a mall that could stand out anywhere, be it the affluent areas in Joburg or Pretoria, or in any township.

The state-of-the-art shopping centre beat the odds and opened its doors to thousands of enthusiastic shoppers despite unemployed locals having threatened to disrupt its opening unless they were given jobs.

Malabie said the owners - a consortium made up of Resilient, Moolman Group and Falcon Forest - overcame countless challenges to realise the dream of eventually opening the mall.

These included difficulties in acquiring and registering the then foreign-owned property back in South Africa seven years ago, going head-to-head with other interested developers, and service delivery protests that delayed construction.

'At one stage, we were described as foreign nationals who had come to the country and paid everyone to approve our proposals,' he said.

Matters came to a head on the eve of the opening on Wednesday, when hundreds of Soshanguve residents descended on the mall and demanded locals be given first priority with regards to employment.

Negotiations between management and residents' steering committee members continued well into the night.

The deadlock was eventually broken, with an agreement that the mall be allowed to open and a new committee chosen to represent the unemployed, local councillor Poppy Maseko said.

A jobseeker, who did not want to be named, told the Pretoria News they were hopeful job opportunities would arise with more tenants still coming in and when current contracts for cleaning, security and other services come up for renewal.

As the owners cut the ribbon and released balloons into the air to mark the opening, a small group of people gathered at the gate still hoping for a last-minute chance to get jobs.

They blamed the previous steering committee for failing them and not looking after their interests in its negotiations with management.

Ndlabole Shongwe, another coowner of the mall, said it was a norm for people to scramble for jobs when new projects opened, but it was impossible for everyone to be employed.

'Apart from about 800 direct jobs that have been created, the owners will donate more than R1 million to two schools in the vicinity. We are also discussing the creation of a community park in the area.

'During the construction phase, there were 93 local contractors who worked on various aspects of the mall, the combined value of the contracts being about R16 million.'

Shongwe said the owners were satisfied with the contribution and input of the steering committee that represented the residents throughout the construction phase.

Pretoria News