A large number of properties in the Pietermaritzburg CBD are owned by one family, which is complicating efforts to rehabilitate, rid the city of bad buildings and restore the CBD to its former glory.
This is according to the MEC for Public Works, Martin Meyer, during an interview with The Mercury where he also revealed that some of the buildings were not being properly maintained.
He said he planned to call for a meeting with the municipality's mayor, Mzimkhulu Thebolla, property owners and developers in the city to find a way to arrest the decay of the CBD.
The government is under pressure to address the issue of bad buildings in KwaZulu-Natal’s major economic hubs of Durban and Pietermaritzburg.
Some buildings are hijacked and used as makeshift accommodation where people are “packed in” to maximise the revenue generated through rent, posing a huge risk in the event of fire or another disaster.
Thebolla recently went on a raid in parts of the city called “Little Somalia”, where he expressed outrage at the condition of the area and the flagrant violation of building codes and city by-laws.
The mayor said that during the raid, they had discovered shacks in the CBD. However, the residents pushed back, claiming they were being harassed by the municipality.
Meyer spoke to The Mercury last week on his department’s plans to ensure government buildings were kept in good shape, and plans for the ones that are vacant.
He said it was important that the CBDs in Durban and Pietermaritzburg were rehabilitated and kept in good condition.
Speaking on the state of Pietermaritzburg, he said the pattern of property ownership in that city was a complicating factor in the work to address the issue of bad buildings.
“A large number of properties in Pietermaritzburg are owned by one family and some of those properties are not being maintained property,” he said.
He declined to reveal the family, citing laws enacted to protect against the publicising of personal information.
Meyer said Pietermaritzburg was the province’s capital and needed to fit that profile in terms of look and maintenance.
“Pietermaritzburg has the potential to be one of the most beautiful cities in the country. It has beautiful architecture and it can attract tourism, but it will not be able to attract any tourists in its current condition.
“We are going to be meeting with mayor Thebolla to address that as one of the issues and we are going to be calling a meeting with all of the landlords in Pietermaritzburg to say we must come together and address this issue,” he said.
He said municipalities should also not stand idle and watch their inner cities decay as a result of bad buildings.
“Every municipality has bad buildings by-laws; they can expropriate a building if it is not being maintained and poses a threat.”
ACDP councillor Rienus Niemand concurred on the ownership and the state of those buildings.
“There are a number of buildings all over town in a bad and unsafe state.
Some occupied, some not. Owned by a few very wealthy families.”
Thebolla said it was true that one family owns a lot of buildings in the city. “There is nothing we can do about that, because these are as a result of private sales between private individuals.
“We will not, however, tolerate having bad buildings in the city. The executive committee met to promulgate laws intended to deal with the issue of bad buildings. These are intended to force the building owners to fix them, or we fix them at a cost.”
He said the issue of bad buildings was a major concern. “The identifying of bad buildings in an ongoing process.
We have identified many of these.”
The Mercury