Sheila Camerer, chairperson of the Constantia Ratepayers and Residents Association
It is regrettable that Mr Nasser Solomon in his letter in last week’s Bulletin ( “Insulting comments,” July 4) opts to play the “man” and not the ball and prefers to attack me personally rather than address the issues raised in the article about what the CRRA tries to achieve in Constantia.
While I understand and sympathise with Mr Solomon’s bitterness about the past, I dismiss his attempt to label me politically. What he leaves out is that I was Deputy Minister of Justice in President Nelson Mandela’s Government of National Unity; I was a founder member of the Democratic Alliance (DA), the first chair of the DA parliamentary caucus and a DA MP for many years.
After 22 years in Parliament, I was appointed by President Thabo Mbeki as South Africa’s ambassador to Bulgaria. Since I retired after serving our country for four years in that capacity, I have been involved in community affairs.
As I pointed out in the article, while the CRRA welcomed the restoration of the Solomons’ property to the family, we have objected to the way the development thereof runs counter to the rules and guidelines applicable to Constantia in the Southern District Plan – the reason why, at the urging of over 80% of our members, we opposed the development in court.
According to Wesgro, Constantia is one of the top-six tourist destinations in Cape Town with all that implies for our economy and job creation for our city.
It is a special place and with its greenbelts and historic wine farms, of benefit to all residents and visitors.
A year and a half ago at a CRRA annual general meeting I extended an invitation to Mr Solomon to join our organisation so that we can work together to preserve this great asset to our city, and I hereby do so again.
