‘Building on verge of disaster’ – eThekwini

A HIJACKED building in Durban is on the verge of collapse and poses a serious threat to tenants according to the eThekwini Municipality.

“Your attention is directed to the fact that the roof is on the verge of collapse, awning over pavement is unstable and stairs used to access other floors are not built to building standards and regulations is considered dangerous to life and property,” reads a notice from the City’s Development Planning, Environment and Management Unit.

The letter was directed to Fazel Cassim, owner of the building which houses Abysinnia Lodge situated at 132-134 Umgeni Road.

The building is at the centre of a protracted legal dispute between property management group; iMar Group of Companies and landlords, Lydia Desta and Derege Lemesa.

Stuck in the middle of this dispute is about 100 tenants living in the lodge on the verge of collapse.

Msawakhe Mayisela, eThekwini Municipality spokesperson said they are aware of the problems facing the building’s maintenance.

“The building is one of the buildings the City has profiled and regularly monitors to collect evidence against the owner in case of court proceedings. The building is considered a problem building and the City is doing all it can within the confines of the law and its by-laws to deal with it,” he said.

According to Marthinus Claasen, Director of iMar Group of Companies, they started managing the property last year in October and inherited the lease from the landlords.

Claasen said the landlords had not been paying their full R58 000 a month rent and that conditions at the lodge were ‘disgraceful’.

“Tenants use a bucket system. There are no doors in the toilets and showers. We have got health notices from the Health department saying that the building is inhabitable,” he said.

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After failed attempts for a sit down meeting with the landlords, Claasen sent them a letter in January stating they were cancelling the lease agreement.

The landlords responded by filing a successful urgent interdict at the Durban High Court petitioning the court to deem the lease cancellation invalid and prevent them from being evicted.

On 26 February, in an email sent to iMar and other municipal officials, Hoosen Moolla, head of the Inner City eThekwini Regeneration and Urban Management Programme, confirms that the building has been ‘hijacked’.

Between February and July, Claasen has received notices from the eThekwini Fire and Emergency Services and the Environmental Health Services departments, warning of the potential hazards the building poses to the tenants.

The matter has been made more complex with the Coronavirus pandemic and the Disaster Management regulations that prevent courts from granting eviction orders.

Roy Singh, attorney for the Abysinnia landlords, alleged that iMar illegally cut off the water and electricity connection to the building “leading to numerous people who are old, kids and disabled having no rood over their heads during this time.”

Pushed on the notice from the City saying that the building is unsafe, Singh said: “My clients are busy chatting to a builder on the way forward to rectify the issue of the building being unsafe but they are having problems as all electricians or builders they sent are being chased away by the security of iMar – we have provided affidavits to confirm same to the court.”

The iMar group denied the allegations and said they working on mounting a new legal challenge. Claasen said their priorities now is on ensuring that the lives of the tenants, mostly foreign nationals, are put out of harm’s way.

“We don’t want to evict the tenants, we want to relocate them because the place is no longer safe to live in,” he said.

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At the time of going to press, the contents of this feature mirrored South Africa’s lockdown regulations.

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