KwaDukuza municipality claims their hands are tied in regards to the unfinished house in Avondale, Ballito.
Last week the Courier reported on the house that has been a construction site for 11 years.
Surrounding residents are fed up, claiming the shell harbored transients and criminals and was used for delinquent and illegal behaviour.
KDM spokesperson, Sifiso Zulu, responded shortly after the Courier went to print last week confirming that the owner Themba Ndlovu’s plans were erroneously approved by the municipality in 2003.
Ndlovu’s neighbour, Trevor Abbott, objected to the construction on the grounds that Ndlovu did not apply for special consent from council to relax the building line from 7.5m from the road to 2m.
“The objectors also lodged an appeal in terms of Section 62 of the Municipal Systems Act to review the decision in respect of the approved building plans upon which construction stopped and Ndlovu was asked to apply for special consent,” said Zulu.
But Zulu said that when Ndlovu applied for special consent, he was blocked by four objectors.
The matter went to council and in August 2005 special consent was finally granted, but the objectors took the matter on appeal to the Town Planning Appeals Board who found in favour of the objectors and set aside the decision of council.
So Ndlovu was not allowed to continue building his house.
“As the matter stands, there is no approval granted for the building and the building has been standing incomplete like that since then,” said Zulu.
Zulu said there was nothing council could do outside the legal processes that had already ensued.
“Once you engage in the legal process it must run its course and any parallel process outside that legal process holds the legal process in contempt.
“We are in a situation where on the one hand objectors went all out to stop the house from being built and on the other hand, perhaps as a consequence, the house is incomplete and attracting vagrants,” said Zulu.
He said nobody knows what the final outcome will be and we will have to live with the outcome of the legal process. He was not clear on what the current legal processes were.
As far as claims of vagrants seeking shelter on the property, Zulu said it was a criminal matter that had to be reported to the police.
However attorney Michael Hands, director of De Wet Leitch Hands attorneys, believes the municipality is still responsible for the problematic structure.
Hands said in terms of the National Building Regulations and Building Standards Act of 1977, approval of a plan is valid for 12 months.
If work is not complete, application is required for an extension. If no extension is obtained, the plan approval lapses.
Hands thought it was probable that the plan approval in this case has lapsed.
“If so, then, also in terms of the Act, it is open to the municipality to apply to the magistrate’s court for a demolition order and I do not understand why the municipality is not taking such a step,” said Hands.
Abbott told the Courier in a letter that the KZN provincial government’s department of local government and traditional affairs in Pietermaritzburg on March 2, 2006 ruled that the owner was to demolish the portion of the building which had already been erected.
“Perhaps the borough would like to comment on why this has, after nearly nine years, not been done,” said Abbott.
