‘TOO little too late’ was the sentiments of Save Our Berea following the municipality’s action against the illegal establishment of a car sales lot at the property in John Zikhali Road.
Save Our Berea’s Cheryl Johnson and Kevin Dunkley called for the City to close the business down with immediate effect.
The municipality’s Sbu Ndebele issued a statement last week confirming that officials from Enforcement and Prosecution, Land Use Management and Building Inspectorate had visited the property on 31 August and had observed 10 vehicles parked at the property. He said the lessees of the property mentioned that they had started using the property from 30 August to bring in vehicles for vehicle sales.
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Ndebele said officials observed that the fence which had been erected incorporating municipal land had not been removed and re-positioned on the boundary of the property as the owner had promised to do so some three weeks ago, and there were no ablution facilities for workers on the property which was an offence in terms of Environmental Health Legislation.
“Officials proceeded to the owner’s business address but unfortunately we were unable to meet with him as we were informed by the manager that he was on a flight out the country. Nonetheless, the Enforcement Officer served the manager with a spot fine of R1 000,” said Ndebele.
Ndebele claimed that the unauthorised building works notice served by the Building Inspectorate three weeks ago expires late this week and if the fence is not removed and repositioned on the boundary, the department would remove the fence.
“Furthermore, if plans are not submitted timeously on expiry of the notice, the owner will be prosecuted and we will also initiate a rate code change,” he said.
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Responding to the city’s statement, Save Our Berea called for an investigation into why the Building Inspectorate allowed the owner to complete the job without approved plans.
“Time and money, paid for by ratepayers, is squandered daily because the Building Inspectorate is not acting swiftly and decisively to stop illegal developments on the Berea. We want to know why the building inspector failed to take action when the house was illegally demolished as far back as March. The owner had no permit from Amafa to demolish, no plans approved and had arrogantly included land that didn’t belong to him in his development. This shows a blatant disregard for the law,” they said.
Johnson and Dunkley said Berea residents had voiced their opinion on social media and wanted the misappropriated land returned to the City.
“They also sure as hell don’t want a secondhand parking lot on this site. When is the City going to listen to the people?” asked Johnson.
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