Controversial businessman Jay Singh and his family will face a fresh battle to keep control of a Durban housing development.
|||Durban - Controversial businessman Jay Singh and his family - who are at the centre of a storm over the partial collapse of their R208-million shopping centre development in Tongaat - will face a fresh battle on Friday morning to keep control of a city housing development in the face of allegations that their company is profiting at the expense of residents.
Among the allegations by the Phoenix Tenants’ and Residents’ Association is that Woodglaze Trading - a company owned by Singh’s ex-wife Shireen Annamalay - has no approved building plans, has not provided an engineer’s certificate and no geotechnical report was done before the construction of the units, resulting in “serious structural defects”.
The residents have gone to court previously, crying foul over building standards and evictions for non-payment of “unaffordable rentals”, but on Friday morning they are launching a new application in the Durban High Court seeking a review of the city’s decisions about the sale of the land and the letting of housing “for narrow commercial interests”.
“This has been done at the expense of ratepayers… and requires the scrutiny of this court,” said resident Sathieseelan Naidoo in his affidavit filed with court.
Naidoo said that in about 2000, the municipality had taken a “policy decision” to use various landfill sites, comprising huge tracts of land in the city, to build lower economic housing.
He claimed that it was the intention of the city to invite developers to build the units, ownership of which would be transferred to needy people - those earning not more than R7 000 a month - for about R29 000.
But, instead, the land had been sold to Woodglaze - without a proper public process - which had then built sub-standard housing, installed itself as a landlord and collected rent from residents.
Naidoo said the rentals were far too high and “serious environmental health and structural problems” arose. Residents fell behind with rent and Woodglaze appointed security companies to begin evictions, resulting in an application for an interdict being made and granted in May this year.
“In many material aspects Woodglaze was permitted to behave in a manner as if it were taking over state property for its private use and benefit.
“The erstwhile head of housing, namely Couglan Pather, failed to take steps to prevent this abuse of municipal-owned property,” he said.
Naidoo alleges many contraventions of the law by both the city and the company, through the sale of the land, the zonings and the lease agreements.
He also alleges company representatives “induced” some residents to pay R10 000 to “jump the housing queue”.
“The intention was to ensure residents got permanent occupation of their premises as owners, but instead the company has trapped the residents into a never-ending debt cycle,” he said.
Naidoo described some of the defects as being sinking ground, collapsing pillars, cracking ceilings, burst pipes, dampness, emission of odours from the landfill site and growth of fungi, “hazards to health, safety and the well-being of residents”.
Attorney Ramesh Luckychund, for the residents, said he expected the application to be adjourned to next month to give the respondents, including the company and the city, a chance to file papers.
Lawyers acting for Woodglaze did not respond to The Mercury on Thursday.
tania.broughton@inl.co.za
The Mercury