Councillor irate about overcrowding

Illegal rezoning and building is a growing problem in the Johannesburg East area.

This was said by the ward 88 councillor, Clr Carlos da Rocha.

He said the City of Johannesburg (CoJ) is not doing enough to fight the illegal developments in the area.

“The CoJ supports people breaking the law. They do not act against people building illegally. The CoJ does not fine them. I do not know why a person shouldn’t be sent to court for this because it is clear he contravened the law. We should demolish the illegal buildings and let the owners use their money to take the city to court. Not the other way round. These people do not respect the law because they know they will get away with it,” he said.

Clr Da Rocha said this after communities from Kensington and Cyrildene complained about what they term as rezoning without following the proper procedures.

The I Love Kensington Association’s (Ilka) chairman, Mr Tony de Munnik, said there is a growing trend of people buying residential properties and using it for business purposes.

“Normal residents are not given enough time to object. Sometimes the developments start before the consultation process is finished. In other instances, these rezoning processes start before even the change of ownership is complete,” he said.

The Cyrildene Community Forum (CCF) chairperson, Mr Sagren Pillay, said the community of Cyrildene is still waiting for a response from the council about its objection to the new Precinct Plan for Derick Avenue and the surrounding streets.

“The plan aims to accommodate the building of China Town in the area. The main roads will have high density development. As yet, we have had no feedback to these objections. No questions have been answered as to how the plan was accepted to be presented as complete. We requested information on the traffic study, the infrastructure capacity, the legalising of infringements, future development space, parking and various other relevant questions. We were promised answers but we received little information,” he said.

He said the plan was due to be approved by the CoJ soon.

Mr Pillay said that if approved, the plan will bring many problems into the area and onto the current infrastructure.

“Should this plan be passed without being fully thought through as to how it will impact on the surrounding areas, we will face traffic congestion and overcrowding. There will be electrical blackouts due to over-strained lines, water cuts due to low pressure and regular sewerage blockages due to the infrastructure not being able to cope with the high density development,” said Mr Pillay.

Clr Da Rocha said the challenges faced by these communities are not new.

“The CoJ does not do anything about these mushrooming buildings when they start. Then, when they are finished, the CoJ has a problem of what it should do with the people in the overcrowded properties. At that time there is not even infrastructure to accommodate that number of people,” he said.

He added that overcrowding brings down the property value in the area.

“People buy houses in these suburbs with low density and big properties in mind. They pay for that right to live in a quiet neighbourhood. Nobody wants to pay a huge amount of money for a house next to an overcrowded house,” he said.

Clr Da Rocha said this leads to a strain on the infrastructure.

He also urged the community to continue reporting these contraventions, even if they are not getting the responses they want.

An inquiry was sent to the CoJ’s spokesperson, Mr Nthatisi Modingoane, on April 23.

The EXPRESS requested comment by April 24 at 11am.

A follow-up inquiry was sent to his office on April 28.

At the time of going to print, no comment had been received.