​The Municipality held a night operation recently targeting problem buildings in the Durban Central Business District (CBD). 

The night raid is in line with ‘Operation Good Hope’ which is a Municipal programme which aims to clean up the City.

The problem buildings visited have mostly been neglected by owners some of whom cannot be traced while others have outstanding Municipal bills.

Coordinator of the operation and Senior Manager at the Inner Thekwini Regeneration and Urban Management Programme (iTrump) Hoosen Moolla said the team has conducted an audit and analysis of all problem buildings in the primary and secondary CBDs.

“The level of by-laws contraventions at these buildings are intolerable. In some buildings, there were illegal partitioning installed without following building inspectorate by-laws. In some flats, we found occupants sharing rooms which are not fit for human habitation,” said Moolla.

He said it is difficult to locate the owners of certain buildings, however they are working hard to track them down.

“In previous operations, we closed down two buildings because of the derelict state they were in. Over the past three years, 18 problem buildings were either closed or rehabilitated.”

He said they also found the stores operating from the buildings were not licensed, non-compliant with Municipal by-laws and selling rotten goods.

“Illegal connection of water and electricity also seems to be on the rise in problem buildings as well as the number of undocumented foreign nationals staying there,” he said. 

Dilapidated buildings that were visited include 120 Woodford Grove, 192/194 uMgeni Road, 178 uMgeni Road, 4 uMgeni Road, 93 Bertha Mkhize Street, 80 Bertha Mkhize Street, 63 Bertha Mkhize Street, 51 Alexandra Street, 74 Dr Pixley Kaseme Street, 9 Masobiya Mdluli Street, 24 Masobiya Mdluli Street and 542 Mahatma Gandhi Road.