City aims to take legal action against owners of Imperial Hotel

THE Grand Imperial Hotel, which used to stand proud at the corner of Imperial Lane and Railway Street in Pinetown, has turned into a house of horrors.

In September 2013, former Ward 18 councillor, Tim Brauteseth, stepped in to try and find alternate accommodation for the 76 families occupying the dilapidated building.

Two years have passed and the house of horrors is now home to 206 people living in extremely squalid conditions. The once famous landmark has become a slumlord haven and is a warren of corridors created by dry walling to create extra rooms. It is riddled with structural defects, unstable wooden flooring and dangerous electrical connections.

According to the new Ward 18 councillor, Bruce Sutcliffe, the occupants of the hotel were paying rent to the owner, but it appears that the owner defaulted on municipal rates and service bills.

“Due to the fact that the owner, Style Props 186, (Pty) Ltd appears to have defaulted, eThekwini Municipality is now in the process of taking legal action against the company for recovery of the amounts, as well as action due to illegal demolition of parts of the property. It appears that the city is preparing to take the case to court this year,” said Sutcliffe.

He said the biggest problem is that it the property has been allowed to degrade to such an extent that it will not able to be restored and, due to current property laws in South Africa, anybody wishing to take action needs to relocate all the persons living there – a cost which would be prohibitive.

“The municipality cannot take any action until the court case is finalised, and as such the situation will not be resolved for a while. While I accept that we need to save whatever buildings we can from the past, in many instances they are in such a disgraceful state of disrepair that it is not commercially viable to restore them or operate from them, and some allowance should be made for such. Look at the Point area in eThekwini, where façades of old buildings are being held up by I-beams (steel beams), which actually degrade the area,” said Sutcliffe.

Another major concern is the criminal element. There has been an increase in muggings, bag-snatchings and smash-and-grabs at the main intersections of central Pinetown, which are only a few kilometres from the hotel. Sutcliffe said, although there is a possibility that occupants of the Imperial Hotel are involved in crime, this would be difficult to prove as many of those living there are itinerants, and possibly illegal aliens, and it would be difficult to tie them back to criminal activities.

“There seems to be a reluctance on the part of the SAPS as well as Metro Police to take any action against the residents,” said Sutcliffe.