The collapse of a wall at the Alleluia Ministries church in Lyndhurst, Johannesburg, is a warning to the city council to pull up its legislative socks before innocent people’s lives are put at risk.
It is apparent that the city council has known for well over a year that there is neither planning nor building authority for this church to be built on sites which require rezoning, consolidation, and the management of environment and services issues. The complex is illegal in every sense of the word, yet city council officials are seemingly incapable of stopping the illegal building work from continuing right under their noses.
On 8 May 2008 an application for planning permission to erect a place of worship on a residential site in Whitney Gardens was lodged with the Department of Development Planning. On 28 May 2008 the application was withdrawn. To date there has been no further planning application for Erf 81 and 82, nor have any building plans been submitted for approval.
Yet, the church exists; has had two noise abatement notices served in September 2013 and January 2014; and the owners are adding further structural elements to it which resulted in part of it collapsing.
The city council has an obligation in terms of National Building Regulations to prevent unauthorised building from taking place and certainly to employ every means at its disposal to ensure the safety of life and property. This is a clear case of its failure to do so.
The city council’s Building Control Officer had a duty to report this illegal work to the city council and to advise it what action to take. Did the Building Control Officer carry out his statutory responsibility, and if so, what has the city council done about it?
It is an indictment on the ethics and moral values of a church when it adopts a cavalier attitude to national laws, disrespects the rights of neighbours, and endangers the well-being of workers it employs. It is not unreasonable to question the example it is setting for the congregants.
[Letter has been edited.]Related articles:
Illegal church receives interdict
UPDATE: Emergency meeting called after illegal church collapse
