UPDATE: Container house owner accused of squatting

Salt Rock residents are up in arms again over an “unsightly” container house construction site after electricity was connected last week.

Two containers placed in the upmarket Gifford Crescent last year outraged some residents who claim the site is devaluing their property and ruining the neat look of the suburb.

Also read: ‘Container house must go’ – residents

Although the plans for the building of the container house have not yet been passed by KwaDukuza municipality and an order to restore the site back to it’s original state was issued to property owner Mark Greenblatt in December last year, the containers have not been removed.

When Greenblatt had electricity connected to the property, numerous residents reported to Salt Rock ward councillor Malcolm Hubner that the connection had been done illegally.

However, Hubner said everything was above board.

“The owner had applied to the municipality for electricity. The connection would work from the border of his property to the electricity box.

“It does not matter if his plans to build have been approved or not. Many people do this when they are building their house.

“The owner had also paid for his own workers to build a trench as the municipality did not have the manpower on hand.

“Seeing the casual workers led people to believe that the connection was being done illegally.”

Hubner added that just because electricity had been connected to the property, did not mean that the owner could live there.

“The owner’s neighbours have reported that he is living on the property. Water had already been connected and he has built a shower. If this is the case, he is actually squatting there. The municipality has not approved plans for the structure to be built, let alone an occupational certificate issued.”

One resident who lives a few doors away from the property and asked to not be named, said the property had been getting increasingly untidy as more building material had been delivered but no construction had taken place.

“It seems like the owner of the property has already gotten comfortable there. Just a few weeks back, I saw that he had brought over visitors and that they slept over in the containers. They had a braai and from what I heard, a jolly good time,” she said.

However, Greenblatt told The Courier he had not been living on the property and that he had no intention of upsetting his neighbours.

“I respect the community and I do not want to cause any trouble.

“My architect has taken a bit longer than expected with designing the plans for the house. It is a bit tricky because the structure will be built using containers which is a new, environmentally friendly idea that has recently been introduced to the country.

“I have started buying materials to build. Once I get the plans, I will submit them to the municipality which should take six to eight weeks to approve. When that is done, I will start building and that should take about four months.”

Greenblatt added that he thought people were not seeing the bigger picture.

“Right now there are containers on the site. But these containers are going to be transformed. Any building site looks untidy.

“Once complete, the structure will have two bedrooms with two bathrooms and an open plan living area. Electricity was connected for safety reasons and also for us to use machinery when we start construction.”

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