Notorious Senator Park may be empty by March

One of Cape Town city centre's most notorious buildings could possibly be emptied for renovations by March, but this would depend on approval from the owners of 168 flats in Senator Park.

Located in Keerom Street, it has become notorious for drug dealing and almost weekly police raids.

During one of these raids a UCT student, Jeffrey Webster, was freed after being held there for several days in August last year by drug dealers.

Meeting officials from the city council yesterday for an update on a previous meeting, two trustees gave a progress report on some of the issues.

Ward councillor Belinda Walker said a way had to be found to deal with Senator Park as Long Street, which it overlooks, would be the focus of media attention when the World Cup was staged in June and July.

The lifts in the seven-storey building had been switched off due to vandalism by tenants. Len Lowings, who manages the building, said in one instance a whole door had been removed. "We sometimes had to call the lift mechanics five hours after they had completed a repair because tenants were breaking the lifts," said Lowings.

In December, a meeting had been held with the owners of the flats, where renovation plans were discussed.

"This would mean the shutting down of the building and the eviction of current tenants," said a trustee, who spoke on condition that she was not named.

Another option put to the owners was a possible sale of the building as a whole or in sections. At a meeting in September, most owners rejected an offer of R375 000 for each of the 128 units at Senator Park.

Meanwhile some "emergency work" had been started on the building during December, but another survey would soon be concluded to establish the extent of any further structural repairs.

"If the building is uninhabitable we'll be going to court because the building is unsafe for tenants. The idea is to evict everyone on the same day," said the trustee.

JP Smith, mayoral committee member for safety and security, said in his experience most owners of units in problem buildings were happy to "just limp along until they could no longer afford the costs" of maintenance.

He said in Senator Park, these costs included repairs to wiring, fire extinguishes and the lifts which were in a constant state of disrepair. The meeting heard that a decision had been taken to shut down the lifts.

The trustee said evicting tenants could prove costly due to possible legal action from owners of the flats who would lose income, but Smith reiterated that an agreed time frame should be established for clearing the building.

"Several drug dealers have been evicted. There's been seven raids (recently) on the building with 72 arrests, 59 were for illegal immigrants, the rest were for various crimes, none for drug dealing," said Lowings.

In his discussion with owners, he said they wanted to know: "Where are the drugs?"

"If police can give me a list of 10 flats where drug dealing is taking place, I could get them evicted," said Lowings.

Cape Times

Posted at 10:50AM Jan 20, 2010 by Editor in Residential  |  Comments[6]