The Durban Magistrate’s Court and two old South African Police Service (SAPS) barracks top the list of problem buildings identified as part of a joint project to enhance the City of Durban.
eThekwini Municipality Mayor, Cyril Xaba, said the inner-city regeneration programme — a collaboration between the municipality and Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) — has identified 76 buildings that are either derelict, abandoned, hijacked or overcrowded.
Plans to rejuvenate, track down the owners or demolish these buildings would form part of the work of a joint task team that would report to the mayor and minister on a monthly basis.
"Of the buildings identified, 58 are privately owned and 18 are government owned buildings, and this is where we require the intervention of the minister," Xaba said in a media briefing at the City Hall.
He said 16 of these buildings have either been hijacked or illegally occupied.
"Since the start of the programme, 12 buildings have been refurbished by their owners, 11 demolished, seven hijacked buildings have been returned to their owners and seven more are undergoing repairs," Xaba added.
Some buildings have been identified where artists are using murals to beautify these structures.
IOL previously reported on the state of the Durban Magistrate's Court, lifting the lid on a plethora of issues including non-functioning lifts, broken windows and non-functioning CCTV cameras.
Police barracks
One of the police barracks, Excelsior Court, situated on the Berea, now has security guards stationed outside after vagrants stripped the property of copper and electrical pipes, geysers and basins and even wiring from the lifts.
Vagrants have stripped the units at Berea’s Excelsior Court, leaving barely anything behind Video: Supplied pic.twitter.com/shJdRcNkWx
— Se-Anne Rall (@seannerall) April 23, 2022
The other police barracks is situated opposite the Durban Magistrate’s Court and has been vacant for a number of years.
DPWI minister, Dean Macpherson, said the technical committee will further accelerate these efforts by working closely together with the metro to identify, reclaim and redevelop bad buildings and address issues of revenue head-on.
“The task team will devise formal strategies and plans to expedite investment into state-owned properties and to attract additional investment into the inner city, while it will have to keep track of interventions to ensure they achieve the desired outcomes,” he said.
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