Chatsworth’s rental housing stock tenants are calling for urgent repairs to their flats despite owing nearly R37.5 million in arrears to the eThekwini municipality. 

The problems of Bayview (863 flats), Westcliff (713 flats), and Crossmoor (28 flats), totalling 1601 flats, came under the spotlight at an eThekwini council meeting on Wednesday. 

Approximately 1501 tenants are in arrears with their municipal accounts, with the breakdown as follows: 

• Bayview: R16 million
• Westcliff: R19 million
• Crossmoor: R2 million

But Ganas Govender, eThekwini ward 69 councillor, said that most of the residents could not afford to pay because of social issues, disputes with inflated bills, unemployment and tenants relying on government pension grants to survive. 

Govender also raised concerns about legal and illegal tenant status which the eThekwini Human Settlements and Infrastructure unit stated that it has records of. The unit was also aware of illegal structures built and methods to deal with both illegal tenants and structures. These include investigation, notice to vacate, legal action, site inspections, contravention notices, referral to building inspectorate, and legal escalation. 

Legal and illegal tenants

• Bayview

Legal tenants: 818

Illegal tenants: 45

•  Westcliff

Legal tenants: 513

Illegal tenants: 200

• Crossmoor

Legal tenants: 20

Illegal tenants: 8

On the issue of title deeds, Govender stated that the government is promoting first-time owners by handing out title deeds for government-owned homes but numerous council rental flats are in a state of disrepair and deterioration.  

Govender called for an intervention to find a permanent solution to the concerns residents are experiencing with municipal rental stock. He called for the rehabilitation of the flats and repairs to any structural defects. 

“It is sad to note that many of the elderly residents have passed on and have not had the opportunity to own these homes under the government’s first-time homeowners policy. I will pursue this matter until residents’ concerns are addressed. There should be a permanent solution with the arrears to get residents to pay for their municipal services,” Govender said. 

Title deeds:

Bayview

-Tenants that have applied: 255

-Tenants that have not applied: 608

Westcliff

-Tenants that have applied: 216

-Tenants that have not applied: 497

Crossmoor

– Tenants that have applied: 278

-Tenants that have not applied: 28

Govender was also concerned that none of the flats had fire hoses which he said would have saved residents belongings in three previous fires. The municipality stated that efforts to replace fire equipment have always resulted in the theft of the entire equipment. 

“The Department has a record of all units with structural disrepair. Conditional assessments are conducted on the availability of funds; however, such repairs can only be effected on items that can be repaired via the operational budget only. The structural repairs can only be funded on the availability of capital budget, which gets done via the rectification budget by the upgrade section of the unit,” the municipality stated in response to Govender’s concerns about structural damages. 

zainul.dawood@inl.co.za

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