THE City of Ekurhuleni is cracking the whip on illegal land use owners.
One such operation took place in Boksburg last week with another planned in Germiston.
Officials from the city accompanied the Sherriff of the Court and the police to deliver a court order, issued by the South Gauteng High Court, to a residence in Windmill Park in Boksburg from which a scrapyard is being operated.
The city had previously served the owner a 30-day notice to cease all operations in contravention with the municipality’s town planning scheme and by-laws.
The thriving scrapyard business, which deals in anything from metal car parts, rusted building materials to metallic home appliances from scrap collectors, has been a thorny issue for the community of Windmill Park, as it is viewed as a criminal den. Youngsters from the community steal goods from their neighbours and sell them to the scrapyard to buy cheap drugs such as Nyaope.
“We view municipal by-law contravention as a serious offence and urge all residents and business owners to abide by these laws or they would face the full might of the law,” said Ekurhuleni acting spokesman, Lebogang Ramashala.
The campaign to clamp down on municipal by-law contraveners continues and next on the list to be served are residential premises that have been illegally refurbished as supermarkets in Delville, Germiston.
According to Ekurhuleni town planning scheme regulations, all land owners wishing to carry out extensions of their premises must have approval from municipal building inspectors. They are also advised to approach their customer care centre offices to obtain information on zoning processes.
