Battle for heart of Richmond Hill

A tense standoff has developed between the Richmond Hill Residents’ Association and the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality with an application to have the acting city manager convicted for failing to carry out a court order to close down illegal businesses by the end of October.

After the sheriff of the high court was at first barred by security officials from serving papers on acting city manager Peter Neilson, the municipality this week briefed lawyers to offer regular progress reports.

But Kevin Slattery, of the residents’ association, said it was not backing down.

“We haven’t withdrawn the contempt application,” Slattery said.

This follows two years of requests, legal action and a court order that have all been ignored by the municipality.

Three spaza shops, which are among the properties highlighted in papers before court, openly continued trading this

week despite the court order and municipal compliance letters sent as long ago as 2015.

The application for a contempt order was postponed in the Port Elizabeth High Court, with two weeks for parties to take instructions on the future conduct of the matter.

In December, advocate Nick Mullins complained to Judge Irma Schoeman that with the rapid changes in municipal managers they were finding it difficult to serve papers on the correct person.

“At this rate, this might take forever,” Mullins said at the time.

Once Neilson settled into the job, Slattery said, the sheriff of the high court was barred by municipal security officers early in January from serving the court order on him.

In February 2017, an inspection by the municipality revealed that there were 28 illegal businesses operating in the area.

The residents’ association, however, only focused on 10 in its court application, including three spaza shops that have received compliance notices from the municipality in the past but have never been closed down.

The other properties had applications for rezoning or special consent pending at the municipality.

Slattery said there were other spaza shops in the area that were legal and had been given permission to operate.

According to papers filed at the court, the municipality warned one shop owner in 2015 to cease trading, but no action had been taken since then.

Slattery said it had also picked up a new battle with the municipality about highdensity housing being put up in the suburb, described as “frail and historic” in an official complaint filed with the Bay council.

“The municipality will increase the risk of socioeconomic degeneration,” the complaint reads.

In the complaint, residents say they are concerned and outraged by the municipality’s “indiscriminate flouting of laws, bylaws and the local spatial development framework”.

The complaint cites three developments, in Edward Street, Bain Street and Russell Road.

According to the complaint, people are already living in the uncompleted building.

In another case, neighbours noted that mattresses and wardrobes were being delivered to a building site but no application for rezoning had been filed yet.

“The municipality is funnelling at least 18 minibus taxis or 70 private vehicles into the suburb,” it reads.

Municipal spokesperson Mthubanzi Mniki did not respond to a request for comment.