Degredation increases at notorious Berea building

AN Oakleigh Drive resident will be writing to the municipality regarding the latest concern over the infamous Excelsior Court building in the Berea road.

Speaking to Berea Mail this week, Brian Robb, an architect by profession, said he felt something needed to be done to alert the municipality to what he called ‘an accident waiting to happen’ at the building.

Robb showed Berea Mail how plaster and brick had fallen away from the side of the building, saying he was surprised no one had been hurt when it had fallen.

He said a resident had driven past recently and noticed how the bricks had come away from the building.

“You can see the sections underneath this have also come adrift and it is just a matter of time before this falls too. With this section missing, water will seriously be able to get in under the brickwork, and with all the rain and heavy winds we are experiencing at the moment, the rest of the brickwork will be ripped off,” he said.

“As an architect of more than 40 years, I have never seen a building as bad as this. The failing brickwork is also eight storeys up. This area should be cordoned off. For more than 20 years we have worked with councillors, MPs, the police and I have even contacted the public protector’s office about this building, but nothing happens because it is owned by provincial government. Huge sections of the wall are falling down but nothing is done. It is seriously dangerous,” he said.

Robb, along with other residents, ward councillor Charmaine Clayton, Central Durban Constituency head and Shadow Minister of Intelligence Dianne Kohler Barnard, DA national MP and Shadow Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure Samantha Graham-Maré, and provincial MP Martin Meyer, visited the former police flats in February last year, following continued complaints regarding noise disturbance as well as the poor state of the building.

Graham-Maré consequently compiled a report and submitted it to the national minister of Public Works, Patricia De Lille.

READ RELATED: MP vows to take shocking state of Excelsior Court to Minister of Public Works

The situation at the building continues to deteriorate and although the building has been condemned for a number of years, people, some who are police officers, continue to live there and according to them.

Following a query this week by Berea Mail on the progress since the oversight meeting in February, Graham-Maré said on 11 November 2020, she had raised the issues of Excelsior Court in a meeting with the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI).

“At the meeting light was shed on the background to the property and it was confirmed that SAPS were no longer the occupants of this property, and that the current users of the premises were doing so illegally. The DPWI is working closely with the Durban regional office, and legal procedures are under way to evict these occupants. As soon as this is done, DPWI will be in a better position to undertake a proper assessment of the building. Its engineers have already identified some structural challenges with the building and has made recommendations on how these conditions could be improved,” she said.

Graham-Maré said she had also included the matter in her final email to the Director General for 2020 which listed the outstanding issues that she had raised during the past year.

“I am still waiting for a response on those things raised. I will definitely raise this again as soon as we meet with that Directorate in the Department, but will put through a question following the opening of Parliament on 11 February 2021,” she said.

Do you want to receive news alerts via Telegram? Send us a message (not an sms) with your name and surname to 060 532 5535.

You can also join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

PLEASE NOTE: If you have signed up for our news alerts you need to save the Berea Mail Telegram number as a contact to your phone, otherwise you will not receive our alerts

Here’s where you can download Telegram on Android or Apple