COUNCIL: DEMOLITIONS TO CONTINUE IF ...

MBABANE – The Municipal Council of Mbabane has justified its act of demolitions and insisted to continue if people contravened the law. 

This transpired during a workshop for constituencies in the Mbabane municipality which was attended by constituency headmen and developers. 

The municipality’s Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Gideon Mhlongo, said they experienced many mushrooming illegal structures within Mangwaneni in August, where residents failed to adhere to notices that were served to them.

Mhlongo said 13 notices were served this year (2020) during the COVID-19 partial lockdown period, as opposed to one notice which was served in 2019 between March and July.

“As part of the ongoing programme to ensure proper development controls in all upgrading areas including Mangwaneni, notices of demolitions were served to residents found constructing illegal structures,” said the CEO.

Mhlongo said on August 21, 2020, council demolished three houses belonging to Phumzile Zwane, Michael Nxumalo and Nelton Khumalo, after they failed to comply with the notices. 

He stated that most of the residents took advantage of the COVID-19 pandemic to construct illegal structures, with the hope that they would not be caught out. He noted that council had to serve a lot of demolition notices at Mangwaneni and was forced to demolish the structures. 

Concern

Mbabane West Indvuna Yenkhundla Mlondi Dlamini, raised a concern over the building ban at Mangwaneni, stating that it had halted development for many years. 

Dlamini also raised a concern about council’s approach towards demolitions, adding that they waited for structures to be completed before being demolished, which painted a bad picture of the organisation. 

Bucopho Vusi Kunene, questioned council if it had the powers to deal with intruders at Mangwaneni, who were stalling development. Kunene said there was someone who was abusing power and using labadzala’s name to pursue his own selfish endeavours. 

He added that the individual had no home in the area but controlled almost everything. Kunene said the intruders’ actions had stalled development and as such they had been frustrated by the building ban as council had stopped everything pertaining to development at Mangwaneni. Currently, he said an electricity scheme had experienced challenges as a result of the ongoing tension in the area.

Responding to the concerns, Mhlongo said the delay was a valid concern which was noted by council, however, he noted that it was beyond their control following that the matter was being attended to at Ludzidzini. 

Judgement

He said they were waiting for the judgement from Ludzidzini, which would give an official position on the boundaries of Mangwaneni. Mhlongo noted that council was willing to develop the area. Meanwhile, he noted that in other areas, development was continuing smoothly, including Mangwaneni in Nhlangano, Pigg’s Peak and Manzini. He said it was only Mangwaneni in Mbabane that was experiencing setbacks.

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