City of Durban owns land illegally invaded on R603

LAND continues to be illegally cleared alongside the R603 in Lower Illovo, but it has now been confirmed that the land belongs to Ethekwini Municipality, and is not owned by the Dube Tradeport, as was initially thought.

The land is owned under an undetermined zoning, meaning its future use has yet to be decided.

“When the portion of land was originally cleared, Dube Trade Port via their tenant Illovo Sugar, claimed ownership of the section, subsequent to which they filed for an urgent interdict to deter further illegal occupation. This was however never served as to date, nobody has yet taken occupation on any portion of the cleared area,” explained ward 97 councillor, Andre Beetge.

When it all started: Land invaders stake their claim on R603 outside Amanzimtoti (confirmed)

“Only on Wednesday, 31 October we learned that Dube was questioning their own boundary, to the point of tasking a surveyor to determine whether the occupation was on provincial or municipal land.”

When inquiring with town planning, it was determined that the land under threat was within the boundary of municipal property and zoned ‘undetermined’, which in layman’s terms means that the municipality has not yet decided whether it was to be used as housing, industry, education or an array of possibilities that might align with Dube’s future plans for the adjacent areas.

“This information, along with the rates reference number from which it would be possible to determine the responsible municipal department with authority of the parcel (as the municipality owns 54,990 properties), was subsequently communicated to the office of the City Manager (who was at the time unaware of the situation) and shared with both the deputy city managers of safety and security services, and human settlements and infrastructure,” said Cllr Beetge.