ANOTHER postponement of the hearing of the controversial 317 Currie Road development by the Supreme Court of Appeals on Monday, has angered many of the objectors of this development who have anxiously waited for a final outcome of the appeal.
The case was meant to be heard before the court of appeal on Monday, 13 March, however it has now been postponed to 10 May and no reason given for the continued delay. On the side of the objectors, Save Our Berea’s founders, Kevin Dunkley and Cheryl Johnson, said this week that they were concerned by the number of times the case has been postponed. “In a country riddled by corruption and vested interests of politicians, the courts have been the saving grace,” they said.
“As we understand the legal procedures, any postponements are only done with the consent of both parties. Advocate ‘Pops’ Aboobaker, who has led the charge against the developers and the municipality, has never been consulted on these delays.”
“The developer maintains that they have not asked for any postponements so then we must ask the question of those in charge of the court roll, to explain, why and how this case has been postponed,” they said.
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Johnson said that the Currie Road case had a bearing on town planning issues throughout the country. “It is a case where the municipality agreed to a rezoning that enriched one developer at the expense of all the other surrounding residents and yet nobody in the city can, or wishes to, give a valid reason for this decision. Every ratepayer should be asking the municipality to explain why they made such a decision.”
“They also need to explain why they are prepared to play footloose and fancy free with ratepayers money to defend a case that is not in the interest of the majority of ratepayers,” she said.
According to the two, if the decision of High Court Judge Steyn to demolish the ‘monstrosity’ is upheld, the the next step would be to recover costs from those individuals, both officials and politicians, who supported the controversial development.
“If that is achieved, then and only then, will arrogant politicians think twice, before they make decisions on the basis that they are answerable to nobody except their political masters,” they said.
The issue before the Appeal court is whether Judge Esther Steyn was correct in finding that neighbours were not given proper and lawful notice of an application by the developers to rezone the land from an initial plan to develop a four-storey building. However, developers submitted different plans for a nine-storey building with a boundary-to-boundary footprint.
“The municipality recently asked property owners to inspect the third valuation roll, which has upset residents even more as they say as a result of the development at 317 Currie Road, their property values have plummeted.”
“Berea residents feel the municipality’s decision to approve this building has caused the derogation of values in what is normally the largest investment that will be made in their lifetime, the value of their residential homes,” said Johnson.
She said the developers bought the property for R5.8m . It was a site zoned General Residential I, but with the stroke of a pen the proposed building was rezoned General Residential 5, meaning the developer who paid a market price for the land was enriched by around R25m.
If the Supreme Court of Appeal upholds Steyn’s order for partial demolition of the building, it will mean the entire building will have to be demolished.
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