DA asks if SAPS are linked to illegally renting out slum buildings in Morningside

20 January 2022

For well over a decade, the Democratic Alliance has raised the issue of the infamous Excelsior Court slum building in Ridge Road, Durban. It has been reported to Public Works, the National Police Commissioner, local SAPS, the City Health Department and various other Municipal units — with zero response.

It has now come to our attention that rooms in the condemned building are being illegally rented out by at least one illegal resident closely linked to a Police Constable.

The slum building, from which run huge rats and reptiles, has garages and rooms filled with garbage and human waste, and taxis have for a decade been seen washing their cars free from the fire hose which snakes down the side of the building. I have on two occasions personally done full oversight visits of the building as the then Shadow Minister of Police, and with the Ward Councillor and Shadow Minister of Public Works. Reports to the Police and Public Works have been ignored.

It is claimed that money is allocated each year for the building to be upgraded, but as nothing has ever been done on it, that is presumably going straight into someone's bank account.

There is no security guard, and the security gates have long since been ripped off and sold for scrap.

The SAPS members were ordered to vacate a decade ago but some are still living there...as well as many others who have no connection to the SAPS.

Property owners all around are kept awake as all-night parties are held regularly. There are reports of illegal shebeens being run there, as well as other criminal activities. Yet frequently police vehicles are seen parked outside day and night. Locals ask whether they are living there or participating in criminal activities within the building.

This is a Public Works Building - yet, as with so many that they are tasked with, it seems to have simply been abandoned. We have asked the SAPS when it will be off their hands and back with Public works for renovation - but in a decade nothing has happened, except that parts of the building are now collapsing. Over and over we are told that "the matter is in Court". For a decade?

The SAPS are doing nothing. Public Works are doing nothing. Health and Safety are doing nothing.

Ward 31 Councillor Remona MacKenzie has met yet again with the local SAPS, but the issue seems to be insurmountable.

To find out now that the rooms are being rented out, by someone within the building, is infuriating. The National Police Commissioner, General Sithole, must resolve this issue, root out the criminal activities going on there, and hand it back to Public works for demolition. Now that it has been abandoned for so long, there is little chance that the building could be renovated.

Issued by Dianne Kohler Barnard, DA Durban Central Constituency Head, 20 January 2022