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Durban Preparing Well for 2010
Ingrid Smith
1 June 2007
Continued economic growth and the steady improvement of living and working conditions in the city will ensure that Durban wins the 2010 Soccer World Cup even before the whistle blows.
Those are the words of eThekwini city manager Dr Michael Sutcliffe, who says that all indications since the start of 2007 are that the city is moving in the right direction. "Our building and construction sectors have outstripped the national average, and property prices – especially for beachfront properties - are escalating. There has been a huge increase in the number of building plans submitted and even property rentals are going up," he says. He adds that "massive" growth in small businesses, along with a fast-growing tourism industry, are also helping to raise investor confidence in both the city and KwaZulu-Natal as a province.
However, there are some major challenges that need to be dealt with if this growth is to continue strongly, he adds. These challenges include cleaning up Durban's "crime and grime areas", which include the Warwick Triangle, CBD, Mahatma Gandhi Road, beach, Albert Park, Musgrave and Umhlanga Rocks. Accordingly, an interdisciplinary committee was formed at the end of 2006 to look into the issues of bylaw enforcement, bad buildings, crime and grime in central Durban, and, reports Dr Sutcliffe, it is already proving its worth.
The committee, which comprises various integrated city departments, is chaired by Bheki Mkhize, who says that the initial decision to focus on these particular areas was two-fold. Either they are the location of much of the city's so-called grime or they are the source of criminal activities and the refuge of criminals.
"The committee's success is already evident when one looks at reports relating to the past summer in Durban. By most accounts, the season was one of our best yet," Dr Sutcliffe says. "Poverty and crime remain two of our biggest challenges, though, so we are talking to communities about tackling issues around security. We are also undertaking various programmes to involve the business and private sectors, all of which are achieving a sense of optimism about the future of the city."
From a "bad building" perspective, inspections to ascertain compliance with occupational safety are well underway, says Mkhize further. "Inspections already undertaken have revealed that many of these buildings have no water and electricity. Lifts and ablution facilities are generally out of order and many are occupied by illegal occupants."
When the committee receives these types of reports, it uses them to motivate the courts to close the buildings down and evict the tenants. Mkhize is however hoping that this procedure will be amended so that the onus to notify tenants to find new accommodation becomes the legal responsibility of landlords. "The problem right now is that landlords want us to find alternative accommodation for their tenants while they fix the buildings, which is why the city is pushing for the above to be instated," he explains.
While there are undeniably numerous buildings currently promoting crime and grime in the city that require attention, Mkhize says some cases are urgent. "The challenge in many of these instances is to locate the owners so that they can be served with court papers." He adds that another challenge being faced by the committee is dealing with the self-serving interests of "certain individuals" who want to take over the buildings themselves and are accordingly twisting the city's plans for bad buildings to suit their own purposes.
Determined not to be swayed from their final objective of cleaning up the city in order to promote tourism and make it a residential destination of choice, Mkhize says that they are motivated by reports that crime was visibly down during the last festive season. "Also, we've closed some problematic buildings down, with the ensuing response from the public being extremely touching," he adds. By Ingrid Smit
Original article published at www.property24.com.
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