Protector moves to demolish ‘eyesores’

The Public Protector’s Office has stepped in to get two derelict Public Works houses in Scottburgh, KZN, demolished.

Durban - The Public Protector’s Office has stepped in to get two derelict prefabricated houses belonging to the Department of Public Works in Scottburgh demolished.

“I have spent an entire year trying to get these eyesores demolished. I finished up going around in a circle, so turned to the public protector for help. Now, let’s see if an urgent request from the Public Protector’s Office will get action,” William Pienaar, the chairman of the Scottburgh Ratepayers’ Association, said on Sunday.

The two houses in Erskine Street have not been occupied by the Department of Public Works for three years, and had been allowed to deteriorate into a totally derelict state.

“The houses are now shells. Thieves have taken anything of value… copper, geysers, even the tiles off the roof,” said Pienaar.

Over the years, the houses had become safe havens for vagrants, drug-pedlars, prostitutes and other criminals in the south coast town, Pienaar said.

The value of the neighbouring properties had dropped as a result.

With residents living in fear, Pienaar began lobbying the Umdoni Municipality to get something done about the building, then the Department of Works in Durban, and then the national Department of Public Works in Pretoria.

He then complained to the KZN Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, which referred him back to the Umdoni Municipality.

Now, having called in the Public Protector’s Office, Ranjay Narain, an investigator in the KZN branch of the Public Protector’s Office, has written to Sduduzo Simelane, the acting regional manager of the Department of Pubic Works, to sort out the problem as a matter of urgency.

Referring to the houses being allegedly used for criminal activities, Narain said this had created an extremely serious security hazard, as well as a health and sanitation danger for nearby residents.

“These residents have accordingly requested that your department take responsibility for these structures and implement urgent steps to attend to the matter, by either having the structures rehabilitated and properly utilised, alternatively demolished so they cannot be used as a safe-have for illegal and dangerous activities.”

The protector’s office has also asked for a progress report on what steps are being taken to resolve the problem.

Daily News