Bash it down!

AT last! Scottburgh’s  Scott Street’s infamous ‘slum house’ can be demolished legally… but now Umdoni Municipality apparently doesn’t have the money to do it.

Umdoni has spent years sending notices to the owner, Joules Krige from Pretoria, but in vain. The matter finally went to court some time ago and a demolition order was granted, with the costs to be charged to the owner.

But, in spite of a firm order from council, nothing was done. The excuse from officials at the most recent Exco meeting was ‘there’s no budget’.

However, councillors have now stamped their authority. They insisted that Umdoni should ‘just do it!’ If the owner still did not cough up, then Umdoni should sell the property to defray costs.

‘Number 37’ in the centre of Scottburgh has been a stinking bone of contention for more than a decade and Umdoni has spent a small fortune on legal fees.

Neighbours, Councillor Edwin Baptie and even Parliamentarian Narend Singh have kept up constant pressure on Umdoni to solve the problem.

The Mid South Coast Mail has also written about it on many occasions and published gut-churning photographs of the mess left by countless vagrants and drug addicts over the years.

The story is so old that the house has almost become iconic to today’s young adults who can remember their teen years when they dared each other to brave the ‘ghosts’ in the dark.

“We’d go into the house and see who got scared first and then run away,” said Mail journalist, Brendan Fijac.

Umdoni was asked when the demolition work would be done, but there was no comment at the time of going to print.

Derek King, who represents the body corporate at the neighbouring Las Palmas complex, came across a destitute young Indian couple with a newborn baby when he inspected 37 Scott Street last week. (The couple’s race is mentioned merely so that friends and family might recognise them.)

Mr King, who has doggedly put pressure on all concerned to do something over the years, was totally shocked and asked the couple if he could take a photograph for the Mail to appeal to people to help. They refused as the young woman said she did not want her mother to know.

“There was nothing else I could do,” said Mr King. “Hopefully the mother, whoever she is, reads this story and will put two and two together.”

Mr King has a thick file of correspondence that he has collected during his lengthy campaign, which might soon end up in ‘file 13’… he hopes.