Bad Buildings Committee puts the squeeze on non-compliant buildings
A scrapyard, a guesthouse, and a shop secretly housing illegally erected backrooms were either closed and illegal connections to water and electricity were disconnected.
The Bad Building Mayoral Sub-Committee recently executed a by-law operation in the west of Pretoria, which saw owners of several buildings with infractions get severely punished.
At a guest house on Es’kia Mphahlele Drive West, with an accumulated a debt of R1.3-million, an illegal electricity connection was found.
Chairperson of the committee and MMC for Corporate and Shared Services, Kholofelo Morodi, confirmed that they disconnected both water and electricity to reclaim what belongs to the city.
“We are undertaking a systematic review of non-compliant properties. Each site will be addressed individually to ensure legal compliance, settlement of arrears, and the implementation of sound property management practices,” Morodi said.
The efforts come after the municipality recently hosted its investment summit, during which over R16-billion was pledged by investors to help cover 22 projects across property and construction, the automotive sector, and infrastructure development.
The officials also closed down another piece of municipal land, which has been unlawfully utilised as a parking facility for 17 years.
Morodi said the responsible company currently owes R2.4-million in outstanding payments to the metro.
A scrapyard in Pretoria West was also closed down for various contraventions. The metro also disconnected water and electricity to another property, which had over 20 rooms illegally tapped into the metro’s services.
“What we normally look at is your fire licence, your health certificates and compliance certificates,” said committee member and the MMC for Community Safety, Alderman Hannes Coetzee.
“In cases like these, the city loses about R500-million a year, that’s why we are doing inspections.”
Coetzee said they want to inspire people to go to the city, to make sure their compliance certificates are registered, so they can continue with business.
“We also want people to conduct their business and do well. But if there are places that are not registered, we unfortunately have to close them down. We don’t have a choice,” he said.
Coetzee added that the scrapyard had no trading licence. He has insisted that follow-ups must be done because of tons of copper cable material on-site, some of which had already been sold.
Another bad buildings operation done in Pta west, where city properties are hijacked by illegal foreigners, electricity were cut and buildings were closed. Borders have to be closed. Tshwane will have zero tolerance with corruption pic.twitter.com/ufN58DBHLB
— mmc Community Safety ( Rambohannes (@Rambohannes) October 1, 2025
Do you have more information about the story?
Please send us an email to bennittb@rekord.co.za or phone us on 083 625 4114.
For free breaking and community news, visit Rekord’s websites: Rekord East
For more news and interesting articles, like Rekord on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Instagram or TikTok.
