An eThekwini Municipality councillor is pleading with city officials to take action and put a stop to the ongoing breaches of municipal and national building by-laws in Cato Manor, Durban.

Warren Burne, Ward 30 councillor, wrote to City Manager Musa Mbhele on October 8, 2025, outlining his concerns over land grabbing and building houses on the pavements along Blinkbonnie Road in Bonela.

In an act of alleged intimidation, on October 24, Burne’s office, a container park home, was overturned in Bonela by an unruly crowd that got wind of the letter he had written.

In 2018, land grabbers occupied a vacant piece of land bordered by Blinkbonnie Road, Buckingham Road, Carlow Road, and Wiggins Road.  

The Enkanini settlement, which consists of approximately 600 brick houses, is now considered uncontrollable, according to Burne. It is situated near the Bonela housing scheme, which comprises 800 houses whose residents pay rates and for other municipal services.

“Plots were sold by unscrupulous people. Shacks were built and enlarged with impunity. While all of this was happening, there was, and still is, no official supply of water and electricity to Enkanini. More ominously, there has never been any provision for the disposal of the wastewater and especially the sewer water and sewer solids from Enkanini. 

“There has been an absence of any action by officials arising from those inspections. Over the last 18 months or so, there has been a fundamental shift in the manner of construction of the buildings in Enkanini,” he said. 

Burne said that multi-storied buildings containing many rooms, in one instance believed to be 16 rooms, are then rented out for R2,000 per room each month. 

Burne stated that these buildings lack a formal metered supply for water and electricity. He added that while the buildings have flushing toilets, there are no formal connections for the outflow, with some sewer pipes routed into storm water drains.

Furthermore, no one was paying municipal property rates, in contrast to the residents of Bonela surrounding Enkanini.

“The ongoing construction of these buildings has been pointed out to the building inspector for the area, but nothing has been done. The city should prevent the construction of any more buildings in Enkanini until some semblance of municipal governance is in place.” 

Burne suggested that the municipality make Enkanini livable as a feature of the landscape in Bonela, and make life more livable for the residents of the formal housing around Enkanini. 

The eThekwini Municipality said it is still in the process of collating the necessary information from the relevant department, and a comprehensive response will be provided as soon as the information becomes available.

In a recent media report, Niki Moore, who manages the Problem Properties Non-Profit Organisation (NPO), said that they have been warning the eThekwini Municipality, since 2019, about illegal building practices.

Her organisation identified almost 700 properties in the central residential suburbs alone, where irregularities are taking place.

The municipality stated that it noted the input and concerns raised by Moore, which are currently under consideration as part of ongoing efforts to strengthen compliance and improve the city’s property rate base.

The municipality currently employs 60 building inspectors, organised into 16 teams across the city’s five regions.

zainul.dawood@inl.co.za

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