Mayor Mzimkhulu Thebolla said they had found “shacks” in the middle of the CBD.
Residents from an area called “Somalia” in Pietermaritzburg are embroiled in a bitter dispute with the Msunduzi Municipality over what the City has described as illegal activity taking place near the central business district.
The municipality has accused residents of running illegal operations in a residential area and putting up illegal structures for accommodation.
“Somalia” is a small area between West and Pine streets in Pietermaritzburg. The municipality raided the area on Tuesday and Mayor Mzimkhulu Thebolla was outraged by what he saw, saying that they had found “shacks” in the middle of the CBD.
He was referring to the backyard dwellings that had been built without City Planning’s permission as he described some of the buildings as shacks that are “worse than what one would find in any informal settlement”.
He said that some of the residents had put up illegal structures in front of buildings, extending them onto the pavements, thereby infringing on the rights of pedestrians.
Thebolla expressed concern that the City’s by-laws had been disregarded by those living and operating in the area and warned of intense law-enforcement action to restore normalcy.
But the residents shot back on Wednesday, claiming that the raid on Tuesday was part of an ongoing harassment by the municipality dating back to June this year. They said they had even gone to court to “stop” the ongoing harassment.
The Mercury visited the area on Wednesday and found angry and frustrated residents amid the signs of Tuesday’s raid by the municipality.
While some of the houses had locked gates, others that accommodate people in brick structures in their backyards were open, with residents insisting the structures were legal.
A municipal official said: “There are a lot of structures here, some illegal buildings that are built in the back and some of rooms separated by partitions.
“As you can see, the gates are closed, they (the property owners) won’t let you in to see what is happening, they only allowed us in yesterday because it was a legal operation and they were forced to open,” said the official.
But residents in the area said the operation was not crime enforcement, instead describing it as part of the harassment carried out by the municipality.
They claimed that since June they had been harassed by the municipality, starting with barricading both ends of the street in the area.
One of the community leaders, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the barricades on the road meant that residents could not access the area.
“We had to use a narrow one way street to get out of the area.
“We went to court to force the City to open the road; the court said the road should be partially opened, and that is what you see today, with the barricades closing one half on the road.
“The City’s security come here in the middle of the night with bolt cutters and pry open locked gates. We have been accused of operating all kinds of illegal activities,” said the community member.
“They have said the area is zoned as residential, when we tried to rezone it as a business area our application was denied,” he said.
One of the tenants in the houses that “The Mercury” visited said she had been living there since 2018.
“We have no complaints about living here, everything is fine. When I moved in these structures were already standing.”
Athin Singh, the attorney representing the community, said the community wanted to work with the municipality to resolve any issues.
“All my clients want is to be able to live there peacefully as residents. I have said that I will be meeting with the municipality’s legal representatives next week to try and resolve any matters.”
Thebolla had not responded to a request for comment at time of going to print on Wednesday.
The Mercury
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