Who and what is AfriForum?

AfriForum is an Afrikaans civil rights organisation that protects the rights of minority groups at national as well as provincial level, and anyone who can identify with AfriForum’s principles and objectives may join the organisation. AfriForum’s community plan focuses on mobilising communities to thus take control of their own streets and neighbourhoods again. AfriForum ensures that your constitutional and civil rights are recognised and protected at national level.

Wie en wat is AfriForum?

AfriForum is ’n Afrikaanse burgerregteorganisasie wat die regte van minderheidsgroepe op sowel nasionale as provinsiale vlak beskerm, en enigiemand wat met AfriForum se beginsels en doelstellings kan identifiseer, mag by die organisasie aansluit. AfriForum se gemeenskapsplan fokus daarop om gemeenskappe te mobiliseer om só weer beheer terug te neem oor hul eie strate en woonbuurtes. AfriForum verseker dat jou grondwetlike én burgerregte op nasionale vlak erken en beskerm word.

AfriForum requests court to put a stop to sale of iconic Bloem properties

ByAfriForum 12/03/202612/03/2026

Soundbite: Christo Groenewald (English)

Soundbite: Christo Groenewald (Afrikaans)

AfriForum’s branches in Bloemfontein today filed a court application against the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality’s intended alienation and sale of various municipal properties, including Tempe Airport and the Franklin Nature Reserve on Naval Hill. The organisation is requesting, among other things, that the process be stopped in its entirety so that the sale or lease of these properties may not take place until the proper processes have been followed.

The organisation believes that the metro’s decision to alienate these properties is reckless and potentially contrary to the law and the principles of responsible public management and transparency.

Although the metro only listed 14 projects in its public notice, these projects in fact include 153 individual plots spread across various parts of the metro. AfriForum believes that this large-scale alienation could have far-reaching consequences for urban planning, environmental conservation and public access to strategic land.

“These properties belong to the community, not to the political elite who want to trade them behind closed doors. We simply cannot allow strategic and historic land, such as Tempe Airport and Naval Hill, to be alienated without proper public participation and transparency,” says Christo Groenewald, AfriForum’s district coordinator for Bloemfontein.

On 23 October 2025, AfriForum sent a formal letter of objection to the Mangaung Metro requesting that the process be immediately halted until proper consultation with the public has taken place.

According to Groenewald, several attempts to engage with the metro and obtain clarity about the process have so far yielded no results.

“This lack of transparency leaves us with no other choice but to let the matter be decided by the courts,” Groenewald concludes.

AfriForum argues that the court application is aimed at ensuring that the Mangaung metro complies with its legal obligations in terms of the Municipal Finance Management Act 56 of 2003 and the Promotion of Administrative Justice Act 3 of 2000 (PAJA).