Municipality land to be transferred to Rhodes

Rhodes this week commenced the planning process to consider various options of how best to use the land between the Gavin Relly Postgraduate Village and Kimberly Hall, inclusive of the over-mined kaolin quarry. This follows a recent Makana Municipality Council resolution to sell the land in question to Rhodes to be used for education purposes.

The land is sold to Rhodes on condition the University takes full responsibility and bears the cost of rehabilitating the disused Municipal quarry.

The Vice-Chancellor, Dr Saleem Badat, and members of the University’s Senior Administration Management (SAM), expressed their gratitude and thanked the Council at the SAM meeting on Wednesday (14 April), saying the decision will now allow the institution to proceed with confidence with its expansion plans.

Dr Badat explained that since the development of Rhodes and the town were integrally linked, the Council decision was as much about the advancement of the town as it was about that of Rhodes.

Rhodes this year has 7070 students, and plan for an intake of around 7400 students in 2013. The newly acquired land, which will enable the University to physically integrate the Gavin Relly Postgraduate Village with the rest of the campus, will become part of the expansion plan that entails building 20 new and refurbished buildings by the year 2020. This includes facilities such as new laboratories, sports centres and digital workstations.

The building of three new residences on land adjacent to the quarry commenced in December 2009 and is targeted for completion in November 2010.

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