By Tabora Bojang
Some residents of Dalaba Estate in Jabang have petitioned TAF Africa Global complaining against “unfulfilled promises” made by the estate developer at the inception of the estate and during the advertising phase which apparently influenced their decisions to purchase the houses.
In their petition, the group lamented that despite securing housing units and serviced plots at “a significantly higher market value” because of the promised amenities, they have been left with incomplete or non-existent infrastructure. They said TAF made a promise to them that it will offer a variety of amenities to enhance the living experiences of the residents including playground, shopping centre, bituminised roads, solar street lighting, pavements with fruit trees, water reticulation system and community facility.
They said following the agitation by the residents, the estate is now fully fenced with two gates, but the fence is incomplete and easily scalable while the street lighting covers less than a quarter of the estate. “The bitumenised roads promised have never happened. Instead, only about 20 percent of the roads are paved with interlocking blocks, with severe erosion, flooding, and poor drainage. There is no children’s playground or shopping centre,” the residents alleged.
“We urge TAF Africa Global to fulfill its promises with immediate effect. We believe that the excuses provided by TAF Africa Global for not completing the road works are unfounded and are situations that will exist for eternity, thus giving them reason to not ever resume or complete the road works. Other estates in The Gambia, including those by SSHFC, have developed their road structures before handing over housing units and while construction works are ongoing. Undeveloped roads hinder development and cause difficulties for residents,” the residents said.
They called on TAF to fulfill its demands including completion of the road work within six months, fully hand over the estate to residents for formal administration and security arrangements, establish a formal mechanism of communication with residents, provide a playground, install solar street lights covering the entire estate and install street lights at the two highway entrances to the estate, as a key security requirement. “We pray that TAF Africa Global revisits its promises made in 2018/19, as contained in its launch video on YouTube. For the sake of trust, business credibility, fairness, and natural justice, we demand that TAF Africa Global takes immediate action to fulfill its promises. Failure to do so will lead to Dalaba residents pursuing other options, including legal action if necessary,” the residents warned.
When contacted, Mustapha Njie, TAF CEO, said the accusations are not new arguing that buying a property comes with a contractual agreement and that when one feels there is a breach, you go to court. “There is nothing like a promise. When you buy a house, everything is written and spelt out as a contract. You don’t go into buying a house with a promise, you buy a house on contract and it is written down, so if somebody fails contractually you go to the court. This is an agreement between two parties so if they feel there is such change they know where to go. There is nothing like a promise. When you buy a house everything is written and spelt out as a contract.”
Mr Njie explained that in the real estate business, once an estate is handed over by the developer, there is usually a service charge where certain services that may be needed are paid for. “Part of the land wasn’t owned by us, but just to make the place safe, we fenced the whole area and put a gate. The estate consists of two phases. The first phase was all paved and houses were built. For the second phase, we sold the land and they are building for themselves. Some of those houses are still not built so you cannot put the roads in there because there is sand, there is stone, there is cement everywhere. So they have to complete those works before we can complete the roads. We are not saying no. That’s the only thing left on our obligation,” he said
