Mnquma municipality cracks down on illegal tenants

Hundreds of tenants who have been illegally occupying municipal-owned flats around Butterworth for years may soon be without homes as Mnquma municipality forges ahead with plans to evict them.

Mnquma's municipal manager Silumko Mahlasela said annually the municipality lost rental revenue of between R4m and R5m in unpaid fees by occupants who included teachers, nurses and other public servants.

He said for many years, the illegal tenants had lived in spacious four- and five-bedroom state flats in Ibika, Cuba and Msobomvu townships. They had not paid a cent, even though some had lease agreements with the municipality.

Mahlasela said after failing to get tenants to pay up, they had no option but to approach the court to obtain eviction orders.

The municipality had already enlisted the services of lawyers and was gathering information on the errant tenants.

“What we are doing is collecting data to identify these people, and once we know who is there, we will deal with such people individually. We are saying they should come forward and sign lease agreements or face the prospect of being evicted and thrown onto the streets.

“Most of them are civil servants such as teachers, nurses, police officers and other government employees who can afford to pay such rentals. Others claim ownership of the flats even though they cannot provide any title deeds.

“A number of them are not even staying there and have rented out the flats to other people and only come to collect rent for flats they don't even own, resulting in the municipality losing revenue of between R4m and R5m every year,” said Mahlasela.

The municipality is also concerned about the number of illegal taverns in some of the flats, with Mahlasela saying it was “chaos in some of these establishments”.

“We need to do something before they degenerate into a state of disrepair.”  

He said because people were not paying, the municipality struggled to maintain the flats.

“It is our responsibility to ensure that these blocks of flats are of a good standard, but how can we do that under these conditions? Once we have completed our data cleansing process, we will approach the courts so that we can legally evict those who refuse to co-operate and pay up. This has to be done before we can even start with refurbishment of such properties,” said Mahlasela.