An eyesore, a health hazard and a safety risk.
These are some of the descriptions of the massive, concrete skeleton standing at the forefront of the Ballito business park near the M4 entrance.
The Edge business park next door to the abandoned building is owned by Willmeg Investments, which also owns Sutherlands Home Furnishings (SHF).
Also read: UPDATE: Avondale residents seek legal advice
Their property operations co-ordinator, Deanne L’Estrange said the building is a major eyesore next to their upmarket furniture store.
“The property is in a hell of a condition. We even offered to buy the building, but the owner wanted R35 million, which we were not prepared to pay,” said L’Estrange.
“At the beginning of the year, the property was completely overgrown and was a serious security risk. We contacted council, who came in and cleared the weeds and cleaned it up which we were very thankful for.”
The Edge’s Me & Co Workspace’s Jamie Lawrence said the building is an ugly blemish for beautiful Ballito.
“The property has so much potential, but right now it is just chasing people away from the business park because it looks so bad,” said Lawrence.
Ilembe Chamber of Commerce, Industry and Tourism CEO Cobus Oelofse said abandoned buildings pose a safety and health nuisance that waste public and private resources.
“This building does not only impact on the property value of neighbouring buildings but is also a liability to the identity of the Ballito Business Park and undermines its ability to compete with other commercial nodes,” said Oelofse.
“The Chamber, also via the Ballito UIP, has been in constant contact with the KwaDukuza municipality to ensure that the steps required to address the issue and the necessary enforcement are introduced in the speediest way possible. It is our understanding that legal processes, in this specific case, have been initiated and we are awaiting the confirmation of a court date.”
KDM media liaison officer Sipho Mkhize said notices have been served to the property owner to comply with the national building regulations.
“Failure to comply shall mean the municipality has to go to high court to get a demolition order. Council will rely on the justice system to issue demolition orders on these properties. It shall be noted that council, as part of this process, needs to have adequate financial resources to appoint demolition companies if the owner does not comply with court orders. This however, will come with huge costs to ratepayers who have to pay for these whilst council is trying to recover the money.” said Mkhize.
He said they are calling all concerned people to work with them to deal with the problem of abandoned buildings.
“We need cooperation of abandoned property owners in order to solve this problem.”
Asmal & Asmal Attorneys’ Ahmed Asmal, who is acting on behalf of his client, Hemanth Singh, said the building belongs to Victory Parade Trading 81 Pty Ltd.
“This company went into provisional liquidation in January 2016 and into final liquidation on October 23 this year. It will probably take minimum one year until the liquidation is finalised and then the building can be sold,” said Asmal.
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