Despite initially receiving criticism from their neighbours in Protea Street, Patensie, Adri Bester and her husband, Christian Rautenbach, who have been accused of taking illegal ownership of a property in the same street, have allegedly received permission from the owner to temporarily occupy the vacant plot and they believe that they did not disobey any building regulations when building a Wendy house on the property.
As previously reported by Kouga Express on December 7, Gawie van der Merwe and his wife, Elsabeth, were left frustrated after a small Wendy house was built on the vacant plot across from their property six months ago, and shortly thereafter a young couple moved in with their two dogs which they alleged were badly neglected.
The report further said that there is no toilet, ablution facility, or water on the premises, and there is a gas bottle outside the Wendy house, which he believes is a major safety hazard.
Van der Merwe immediately notified the Kouga Municipality about the alleged intrusion on the property when the Wendy house was built.
Despite their initial complaint to the municipality six months ago, Elsabeth said that they were informed that multiple statutory notices were issued, but she believes that it is time for the municipality to take legal action against the alleged illegal squatters.
Bester, who currently stays in the Wendy house with her husband, said that they have received permission to build the temporary structure from the owner of the plot, who is her husband’s aunt.
She said that the owner, who stays in England, was kind enough to offer the plot as they had no place to go to and their only other option was to stay on the street.
“We received permission to stay on the vacant plot while we find our feet. This is a temporary situation and the owner plans to move back to build her own home on the plot,” said Bester.
Referring to the allegations that her dogs were neglected, she said that her dogs were not neglected, instead they were well taken care of.
“One of our dogs eats well and is perfectly fine, while our other dog is 16 years old and it is understandable that he does not always want to eat because he is old,” said Bester.
She further said that since they moved to the area most of their neighbours have been friendly, with one neighbour being kind enough to build their Wendy house while their next door neighbour regularly offers them bottles of water, since the municipality allegedly turned off their water and removed all water pipes and taps on the property.
Bester said that they do not cause any disturbance and are rarely home, instead they spend most of their time at her fathers-in-law’s house nearby, where they are able to use the restroom.
She said that they have no intention of starting a “war” with their neighbours who have been unhappy with them building their Wendy house in the area; however, it has been disheartening that some have “bullied” their other neighbours to discourage them from helping.
“We are quiet people and we do not bother anyone, but we have found that some people are unhappy about us being here, so much so that they have even resorted to bullying the owner of the plot as well. Sadly, she has been bullied so much that she now wants to sell her plot,” said Bester.
Bester said that two months after they were done building their Wendy house the municipality issued a notice instructing them to stop building; however since then they have received no notices from the municipality.
Despite hoping to build a larger Wendy house for more space, she said that after doing some research they found that if they built a 3mx3.6m structure they would not need building plans, and their current structure therefore adheres to building regulations.
“Our place is very small, but we did not have money for building plans, and instead we had to get the smallest place we could find,” said Bester.
In the previous report, Kouga municipal manager, Charl du Plessis, said that after receiving complaints, the municipality found that the property is registered to a private individual and that a structure was erected in the absence of an approved building plan. He further said that the municipality then proceeded to issue a notice in terms of the National Building Regulation and Building Standards Act, on August 15.
In addition, he said that a notice was served in terms of Section 169 of the Spatial Planning and Land Use Management By-law: Kouga Local Municipality, 2016, on November 3, instructing the owner/occupant to cease the alleged unlawful activity within 30 days.
Du Plessis said that the structure is not compliant with the requirements of the zoning scheme, and on December 5 the matter was handed to the legal department for an application for an eviction order.
He said that the property in question is privately owned, and that the municipality has no locus standi to bring an eviction application.
Du Plessis further said that an appropriate court order will be sought from the court, which will address the alleged illegal structure erected and the non-compliance with the SPLUMA by-law, which intends to call for the demolition of the alleged illegal structure.
- An updated comment from Kouga Municipality was requested but was not received at the time of going to print. It will be added to the online version of this article once received.
