No solution to illegally occupied Scottburgh Town Hall
Ward 15 councillor Dana Daniels said since taking office in September last year, she has repeatedly raised concerns about the unlawful occupation of the hall.
What is happening with the Scottburgh Town Hall?
This question is repeatedly asked week after week, month after month, and now year after year.
A few years ago, the hall was illegally occupied by residents evicted from privately owned land in Park Rynie. Since then, the premises has become run down and unavailable for public use.
Edwin Baptie (MP) DA Ugu North Constituency Head, stated that the venue supported weddings, cultural events, public meetings, training events, entertainment, social gatherings, but this has all disappeared at the hands of the municipality.
“The Scottburgh Town Hall was the most used facility in Umdoni,” explained Baptie.
He said that the group legally evicted from Park Rynie had some among them who made no effort to find alternative accommodation after they knew that the eviction was happening, and rejected offers for temporary shelter.
It is believed that they were encouraged by councillors from another political party to occupy the town hall.
“The mayor and her misguided comrades resolved by majority vote to oppose the application for the eviction in Park Rynie, despite it being a matter between a landlord and illegal tenants. They lost at great expense to the public, adding to the growing list of fruitless and wasteful expenditure that contributes to bad audit reports and diverts revenue away from service delivery,” added Baptie.
“The municipal manager at the time ignored advice from myself and the manager of legal and estates to evict the illegal occupiers and to charge the councillors who had encouraged the occupation. The municipal manager then instructed an attorney to investigate the illegal occupation of the hall.”
On November 28 last year, media houses received a statement from Umdoni, ‘Salvation efforts to stabilise Umdoni yielding positive results’. In this report, the hall was mentioned: “During the sitting of Council on November 27, the Acting Municipal Manager, Nhlakanipho Kumalo, presented a report for noting by Council on the progress of interventions implemented by management on service delivery and labour. The report gave interventions on tools of trade, labour, reclaiming of the Scottburgh Town Hall, state of preparedness for the festive season, improvement of waste management services, verge maintenance, roads and storm water maintenance, streetlight maintenance, rural maintenance, revenue collection and filling of critical vacant posts.”
It has been months since this statement was made, but there has been no explanation about this claim or an update.
On November 22, a media invite, ‘Introduction of contractor for temporary housing units’ specified that this meeting with the contractor was for temporary housing units for the evicted residents. A day later, media was notified this meeting was postponed, and since then there has been no update.
At the last public participation meeting on Park Rynie beach, the topic was brought up again and residents were told the matter is being dealt with and there is a housing plan and that illegal occupants will be moved soon. There has since been no update.
Ward 15 councillor Dana Daniels said since taking office in September last year, she has repeatedly raised concerns about the unlawful occupation of the hall.
“In November 2024, we were told the illegal residents would be relocated to Farm Abrahams, and the National Department of Human Settlements allocated R1.8m to Umdoni Municipality for temporary residential units,” she said.
“That plan collapsed after consultations with Farm Abrahams residents. A further proposal to relocate the illegal residents into subsidised homes in Malangeni was also rejected.”
“Due to the ongoing inaction, the Department of Human Settlements has withdrawn the funding. Meanwhile, Scottburgh ratepayers continue to be sidelined, forced to fund accommodation and conference facilities elsewhere, while our own town hall remains unavailable and neglected.”
* Umdoni Municipality was contacted for comment on the Scottburgh Town Hall matter weeks ago, however, no comment was received at the time of going to press.
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