UPDATE – Contentious wall still not demolished

According to municipality spokesman Joseph Ngala, the attorneys were attempting to secure a court order to stop construction and demand possible demolishing of the illegal boundary wall.

This after it was reported that the neighbour had continued to build over the weekend. The massive structure has been increasing in size since March.

Anna-Marie Fitzgerald said she had gone on holiday in March and come back to find the wall along the back of her garden had increased in size. “My neighbour kept on building. By July, I reported it to the building inspector, as I was worried about the safety of my children. But he has kept building and he does not seem to be stopping.”

Nelspruit Post went to investigate and discovered that builders were still building onto the wall, which must be over six metres high already. The wall also did not have support or vertical movement joints. Some of the bricks could be seen crumbling under the weight of the structure.

Fitzgerald said she felt frustrated, as it was just a matter of time before someone got injured or her property was damaged. “Also, this has an influence on the value of my property. Who would want to look at this prison wall? We normally sit outside on weekends and now we stare at this monster in our back garden.”

Mbombela municipality’s building inspector, Nomi Shiba, said she was also at a loss with the neighbour, Nathi Sambo, as she had continuously issued warnings and legal notices to stop building, which he kept ignoring. “He also did not give us the engineering certificate and approval plan for this wall.”

Shiba said she finally felt like she was dealing with a “brick wall” and handed the matter over to their legal department.

She said this department would have to take things further with Sambo regarding his wall.
Nelspruit Post approached Sambo for comment regarding the wall, but was told to “shove off”.