A derelict home in the upmarket suburb of Bonnie Doon in East London is raising hackles.
Buffalo City Metro (BCM) ward 18 councillor Jason McDowell said he had received numerous complaints from residents.
“I have tried to get assistance and reported the house to different departments in the municipality including law enforcement but nothing has happened.”
DispatchLIVE visited the property. Its electric gate has been removed. Fallen palm tree branches which fell at the entrance have been moved aside by neighbours for easier monitoring.
The stench of sewage hitting the nose is from a one-bedroom flat.
The flat has been vandalised, pillaged and destroyed. A thick layer of sewage covers the entire floor and trickles down to the neighbour’s yard.
McDowell said he and the neighbour had tried for months but had failed to get BCM to fix the leak.
BCM spokesperson Samkelo Ngwenya said that though BCM was responsible for the sewer network “wherever it is”, BCM was not responsible for internal plumbing.
BCM handled private property plumbing leaks by tracking down property owners and penalising them or ordering them to fix the problems.
“The municipality is not responsible for internal plumbing from the municipal sewer connection point to the houses; property owners are responsible.
“In cases of abandoned houses, property owners are tracked and applicable penalties or corrective measures are implemented in line with our bylaws.
“The municipality is responsible for maintaining all its reticulation network wherever it is. Consumers only need to report any sewage overflow to our call centre or service centres at municipal depots wherever they see such overflows.”
The house is heavily vandalised. The jacuzzi is broken, sinks, light switches, plugs, electricity cables and boards have all been ripped out.
The pool is stagnant and the grass unkempt.
There were signs under a stairwell and a bedroom that vagrants use the house. Kitchen cupboards are ajar. The tiling remains in place.
One organisation turning lemons into lemonade is Clean Slate, a non-profit organisation which runs a rehabilitation programme to reintegrate ex-offenders and “abandoned and forgotten people” into society using an holistic approach.
East London resident Brian Francis, who started the NPO while living in the UK before moving back to SA in 2019, said: “I have received support from Jason [McDowell], some community members and businesses who have contributed with material such as windows, rhino boards and roofing.
“This will be for a safe house for women ex-offenders which we hope to open soon.
“I have two ex-offenders who are doing the renovations and this will add to their skills development,” he said.
McDowell said Francis had brought a positive change to the area in the two months that he had occupied the house, while complaints had decreased from neighbours and businesses.
Nahoon Community Outreach (NCO) committee member Bill Brander said four churches in their area were getting involved with Clean Slate.
Brander said: “We come together to serve the job seekers who come into our area looking for employment.
“Brian asked us if we would undertake to support the house spiritually and open up the NCO Job Club to them to assist them in finding gainful employment.”
But three other houses in Nahoon — one near the banks of the Nahoon River with beautiful views, also lie abandoned.
McDowell said one house had been abandoned in its construction state for almost 10 years.
One on Beach Road is now locked and inaccessible. It has no visible roof and is in an abandoned state of construction.
Ngwenya said: “If there is outstanding debt, the registered owner must make an arrangement with the city in terms of the credit-control policy to settle the debt.
“In the event that there is a sale of the property, the municipality recovers the debt through the rates clearance certificate.”
In Mthatha, DispatchLIVE found a handful of derelict houses in residential areas such as Ikwezi Township and Southernwood.
Mthatha Ratepayers and Residents Association spokesperson Madyibi Ngxekana was adamant that the number of such houses was much higher.
He showed the newspaper an abandoned house near his home in Southernwood which he claimed had been vacant since the early 1990s.
The house had a jungle of weeds growing inside and out. He said a few years back, one of the neighbours had complained about a group of young thugs who were doing drugs in the house.
Abandoned houses drive down property values, he said, and though there was a policy that the municipality would clean up abandoned properties, this had not happened. Municipal costs would then be charged to the owner.
He said some houses were used as dumping sites which increased the environmental health risk while others were used by criminals as hideouts.
KSD municipal spokesperson Sonwabo Mampoza confirmed that some abandoned houses had become havens for criminals but stressed that the municipality always encouraged people to either keep their properties in a good condition or consider selling them if they no longer used them.
He did not know where the abandoned houses were.
“Over time, they end up contributing to the high rate of crime,” he said.
He could not confirm if there was any municipal policy on abandoned houses.
DispatchLIVE
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