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| LOCAL BEAUTIES: Andrie de Beer walked away with the title Miss KZN 2010 in the national Miss Summer Heat competition that was held at Galleria on Wednesday evening. Andrie already has a long list of titles behind her name and everyone on the South Coast is hoping this girl who stands head and shoulders above the competition will bring home the national title too. On the left is the first runner up Shozelle Caupe and on the right second runner up Dominique Mann. |
by Seton Thompson
05 February 2010
Hopes of a speedy and positive resolution to the Pennington Village Mall débâcle appear to be rapidly fading away.
That is unless the Umdoni Council comes to the party and offers an olive branch and present evidence suggests that is unlikely.
Given the sinister history of the development, it was never going to be easy to restore normality but the situation appears to have steadily become messier and more fractious since the High Court handed down a final order of liquidation on 18 December 2009. Liquidator’s representative, Maryn van Staden, gloomily reports that the few early inquiries about buying the property have dried up.
In a nutshell, the desirable path ahead would be to sell the property, sort out the liquidation, establish a functional property and life returns to normal. This is not possible because the Umdoni Council has listed faults and omissions that must be addressed “before an Occupation Certificate for Erf 1243 can be issued,” failing which, they will not register transfer of any part of the property. Their key requirement is full compliance with the permitted number of storeys, being two, per the Town Planning scheme, but they also require sight of seven compliance certificates and As Built plans of all alterations plus the correction of various lesser variations from plan or regulations.
This is where stalemate creeps in. Potential buyers all demand that the “third floor habitations” be authorised; the Council demands that they be removed. Jaco Odendaal, the representative of Mystic Blue Trading 236 (Pty) Ltd, the now insolvent developers, insists that the third floor was authorised under Special Zoning - a contention supported by his consultant, Dennis Marshall – and that he has documentary evidence to that effect. Minutes of a Council meeting of 27 February 2004 confirm the special zoning but with the all-important caveat that “the area be limited to storage space and not for habitation”.
A note that the decision could be referred to appeal implies that they foresaw possible opposition to this.
The conclusion that the solution lies in the hands of the Council is being voiced by an increasing number of observers. Esme Collins is one who asks “if these third floor rooms are a contravention now, then they presumably were a contravention from the beginning – why did the Council do nothing to rectify it then and allowed the sale and transfer of a number of these flats over the years? Now, they want to close the door after all the horses have long since bolted”. Furthermore, the Council is owed well over R400 000 in arrear rates on this property so it has a further incentive to hasten the resolution of the matter.
One cynic who asked not to be named suggested that the present situation of stalemate could be beneficial to anybody who anticipated a ‘fire sale’ and was prepared to take the risk of settling the matter afterwards, but the creditors might block that avenue.
Meanwhile, the only predictable action in the near future is the convening of the creditors’ meeting by the High Court. Maryn van Staden expects that to happen within the next month but there are rumours that the position of liquidator might be challenged by some creditors, a not uncommon occurrence when creditors are wrestling with each other over a diminishing payout. |
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