ETHEKWINI Municipality has sent a stern warning to unscrupulous landlords that if they continue to contravene health, safety and building bylaw regulations, the City will raid and close down their buildings.
This was the strong message given by iTrump Senior Manager Hoosen Moolla during a raid which led to the closing down of one of the City’s worst rundown buildings near Joseph Nduli (Russell Street) on Wednesday, 27 January.
The building, which has an unbearable stench, broken windows and old, rotting wooden floorboards was home to more than 500 people.
During the bad building operation Moolla was accompanied by officials from the City’s Water and Electricity Units as well as officers from the South African Police Service and Metro Police.
Moolla said the building had been a problem because of its severely dilapidated condition. “To make matters worse, this bad building was also being used as an illegal accommodation establishment,” he said.
Moolla said the tenants who were cramped in small cubicles partitioned with thin wooden planks were paying rent ranging from R800 to R1200 monthly. The building owner had been served with contravention notices previously because the building had no ventilation system or adequate ablution facilities. The building also posed a fire risk and had no fire escape routes.
Moolla said the closure of the building served as a warning to other unscrupulous landlords who were contravening City regulations. He said the City’s closure list included more than 120 buildings which fell under different contravention categories.
EThekwini Municipality intends to tackle the issue of derelict buildings in the City through the recently gazetted Problem Building By-law. The by-law aims to provide for the identification, control and rehabilitation of problem buildings in the City.
This by-law will be enforced in combination with other by-laws as a problem building usually contravenes the Fire By-law, the National Building Regulations, Health and other By-laws.
“The City will be able to issue one summons and combine all the offences in terms of the By-laws and National Building Regulations. This will allow for coordinated action by the various Municipal departments including Metro Police to deal with a problem building. It will also allow the full picture to be presented before the court,” said the municipality’s Tozi Mthethwa.
She said if the matter reaches the High Court, the judge can set a fine up to R500 000.
“Further penalties can be imposed if the building owner fails to comply with a compliance notice. They could incur an additional fine not exceeding R5 000 or imprisonment not exceeding 10 days for each day the offence continues,” she said.
To view the by-law in full visit: https://www.durban.gov.za/Resource_Centre/Pages/By-Laws.aspx.
