Africa-Press – Seychelles. The Minister for Land and Housing, Billy Rangasamy, has clarified that the piece of land allocated to Chief Justice Rony Govinden recently was based on compassionate ground rather than a favour to him by government as being reported.
Minister Rangasamy made the statement yesterday morning during a press interview to commemorate the start of Habitat Week, which saw the launch of the Mid-Range Condos housing scheme.
The information about the land bank transaction between government and Justice Govinden came to light some time last week on social media, alleging that CJ Govinden was given a favour by government to acquire the piece of land at Sorento Glacis.
Minister Rangasamy said that the chief justice do not possess any land as he lost all the land he owned through to a divorce settlement.
He noted that the chief justice has for the last four years been renting a house to live in and has found himself in a tight spot without his own home.
Minister Rangasamy said the chief justice had since 2021 been requesting for the piece of land to build his own house and the 995 square metre piece of land at Sorento Glacis was allocated to him for the sum of R122,800.
He added that many land applicants were offered the rocky and aggressive terrain in the past but they showed no interest in taking it.
He said that Justice Govinden accepted to build all the infrastructure on his land as condition also.
He further said that the land application was done in all transparency, noting that the ministry has assisted many people on compassionate ground but they have not come to light given that they were not prominent public figures like Justice Govinden.
Minister Rangasamy said that it’s difficult at times to imagine life after a divorce where one has to rebuild one’s life from scratch and that government, after analysing the case of Justice Govinden, eventually decided to allocate him the piece of land based on compassionate ground.
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