More building compliance needed

After the Tongaat mall collapsed killing two people the spotlight has fallen on municipal building inspectors and the process required to prevent such disasters from happening.
The Ethekwini municipality building and planning department has came under fire, accused of not monitoring the construction of the Tongaat mall. Last week Ethekwini building inspectorate manager Daniel Pentasaib and senior technical planner Navin Palayan told the Courier that their team had the capacity to handle all the developments taking place around the metro.
“The issue of the mall is different because the building plans were never submitted so there should not have been a building to monitor. Gralio Construction only submitted earthwork plans which we refused because they did not adhere to the national building regulations,” said Pentasaib.
While the KwaDukuza municipality (KDM) has not had any town planning disasters, there are cases like the Big Blue building on Compensation Beach Road which has been a concern for most Ballito residents. The building has been damaged for years and should be demolished. It is often occupied by vagrants who are repeatedly removed by safety officers.
Di Jones from the Dolphin Coast Conservancy said there was also the question of the Baccari house (the name of the owner at the time), north of Willard Beach, which was damaged during the 2007 storm and is yet to be demolished.
Councillor Ann McDonnell said KDM has good and competent planners and inspectors but has a problem of monitoring compliance.
“KDM does serve ‘stop construction’ orders and even get court orders, but the fines levied in the first instance are no deterrent to a large developer, and to find the right person to arrest in the case of an interdict is also not easy,” said McDonnell.
According to her, local authorities have been quite accommodating in allowing “at risk” building prior to the plans being approved, and probably encouraged this practice by being helpful in a situation of backlog.
“Enforcement needs to be taken seriously, we are after all the custodians of the town planning schemes and by laws. Wonderful legislations but they are just paper unless there is enforcement.”
McDonnell also raised her concerns over the development on the beach front and said KDM was not doing enough in monitoring compliance which resulted in lots of owners are building without any assessment of compliance.
“While the public’s life is probably not threatened in most cases, this is the thin edge of the wedge. I believe the law is the law and the municipality is obliged to enforced it,” concluded McDonnell.
Attempts to get comment from KDM were unsuccessful.