Durban tackles slum landlords
By Zohra Mohamed Teke
The eThekwini Municipality is to flush out inner-city landlords who are netting millions of rands a year by renting out dilapidated buildings to mainly foreign nationals.
While most of these landlords have already been served with notices by the municipality, the city's inner-Thekwini Regeneration and Urban Management Programme (iTrump) is to speed up legal action against them to ensure they comply.
During a recent raid by municipal officials on the buildings, a shocking picture emerged of this accommodation, run mostly by astute businessmen.
In one case in the backstreets of inner Durban, 12 containers have been put together, some stacked on top of each other with ladders to access them, to house more than 120 Zimbabweans.
They are being charged R12 each a day - earning the landlord about R43 000 a month.
An attached building on the same property houses an additional 200 residents, who share four bathrooms and four toilets, which lack proper running water. The drainage system is said to be inefficient while the building structures are in an appalling condition.
iTrump has previously taken on the landlord 69-year-old Farouk Asmal, a textile businessman. Notices that were served on him outlined the by-laws that were allegedly being violated, including the municipality's health and fire by-laws, and parts of the National Building Regulation and Standards Act.
iTrump claims the properties are in a state of dilapidation and disrepair; unfit for human habitation; endanger the lives and safety of those who live in them; and have been erected unlawfully without municipal approval.
Approached for comment, Asmal pleaded poverty, arguing that he did not make a profit from his properties. He insisted he was serving a charitable cause by easing the government's housing crisis.
"If I didn't accommodate these people they would be living on the streets. Where are they supposed to live if there is no housing and they cannot afford Hilton Hotel rates? I even feed them for free twice a week. I am not making money from this at all. The utility bills come to R16 000 per month, and I don't have the money to put in all the things the municipality wants me to do," he said.
iTrump head, Hoosen Moolla, dismissed Asmal's claims, saying his properties violated by-laws. "We've given him enough time to ensure compliance, which he has failed to do," said Moolla.
"Our strategy is not simply to shut down these buildings, because there is a huge need for housing in the city centre. For this reason, we work with the landlords and allow them to run these buildings as accommodation establishments, but they must ensure that the accommodation is habitable, is within acceptable norms and that it meets all by-laws."