The City must take a tougher stance on those building illegally in Summer Greens, say residents there.
The issue came to the fore again after residents claimed work being done to a house in Summer Greens Drive – including the installation of new aluminium windows and five new doors leading to separate areas – hinted that the owner planned to build flats or shops on the property.
Residents have complained previously about illegal building, overcrowding and a proliferation of boarding houses in both Summer Greens and the rest of Milnerton with some threatening to withhold rates over the issue (“Rates boycott threat over alleged illegal buildings,” Tabletalk, April 24).
The Summer Greens Ratepayers Association (SGRA) has complained that unchecked building and overcrowding threaten to turn the suburb into a slum (“Summer Greens squeeze must stop, says civic”, Tabletalk, December 8, 2021) and that some property owners simply ignore building by-laws (“Building cramps residents’ style,” Tabletalk, January 23, 2020).
On Monday afternoon, May 6, about 30 residents, joined by ward councillor Anthony Benadie and two City Law Enforcement officers, gathered opposite the Summer Greens Drive property where they complained to the councillor that “slum lords” were intent on buying houses in the area to convert into boarding houses.
Mr Benadie said the City knew of those buildings, but there was only so much that the City could do.
“Often in these cases, someone buys the house and starts making renovations and alterations on the property without submitting any building plans. It is a pattern that we have seen where they start building, the City tells them to stop and these people know that all they will get is a fine. And I want to add that this isn’t just a Summer Greens problem. This is happening everywhere. Milnerton is flooded with projects like this. The City unfortunately can’t get a demolition order. Because the City’s first course of action is to help the people to be compliant,” he said.
Summer Greens resident Carla Theuns said: “What is the point of complaining all the time to the City and Law Enforcement? These people will just continue to keep buying houses and renovating without plans, pay a fine and move on with their lives. So we need to take a stand as the community and deal with this ourselves. Whether we organise a protest and get the attention of the people who can actually help us with this fight. Government is allowing our neighbourhood to become a slum.”
In a meeting with Law Enforcement, Mr Benadie and SGRA chairwoman Bridgette Lloyd, the contentious property’s owner, Austin Ogbu, asked what laws stopped him from changing wooden windows to aluminium ones.
Mr Benadie said a plan had to be submitted to the City for whatever work was done on a property, whether it was putting in new windows, changing a garage door to a sliding door or internal renovations.
“And at this moment, no plans have been submitted. In fact after finding that out, on Friday, a cease operation was issued to the property,” Mr Benadie said.
Mr Ogbu said: “The way the inspector delivered the cease order was wrong. He was trying to force one of my workers to sign the document. I stopped them and asked to see the paper and for the inspector to explain what the document says. He did not explain anything and didn’t leave a copy.”
Mr Benadie said the City would not issue such a notice if the site was compliant.
Mr Ogbu did not respond to further questions at the meeting about how he might make the building compliant or whether he would abide by the cease operation notice.
Resident Graeme Botha said he feared frustration in Summer Greens could boil over.
“This morning (Tuesday morning), I drove past there as I was doing a school run dropping off my kids when I saw that the windows of that house appeared to be busted. I can’t say if someone intentionally busted out those windows, but it looks bad and things could get way out of hand very soon.”
Tabletalk was unable to reach Mr Ogbu to confirm whether the windows had indeed smashed.
Ms Lloyd said the SGRA would check whether the community was willing to take part in a protest against illegal buildings in the area.
