Two years and four months after Communicare called a meeting with Welverdiend tenants, informing them of plans to demolish the 68-year-old residence located in Rondebosch, the owners of the property now say the last remaining tenants will again be informed about alternative accommodation in Communicare’s portfolio.
Makhosi Kubheka, Chief Operations Officer (COO) of Communicare, says they expect the tenants to take up the offer for alternative accommodation in Communicare’s portfolio.
“Tenants who are vulnerable will be offered the unit at their current rental while those who are economically active have the choice of several other options, including upgrading to larger units.
Those tenants in arrears will need to sign an acknowledgement of debt,” says Kubheka.
Besides for the debt-acknowledgment part, this is the same offer that was extended to the original 100 tenants at a meeting with Communicare in October 2019.
When People’s Post reported on developments at Welverdiend in February 2021, only 61 had accepted Communicare’s offer.
With another year having passed since then, the number of tenants living at the residence now stands at 30.
James Engelbrecht is one of them.
The 71-one-year-old is adamant that he will not leave.
“The sheriff of the court will have to drag me out of here,” says Engelbrecht.
Although no formal orders to vacate have been issued to tenants, Communicare in the past has committed to giving tenants six months’ notice to vacate, prior to the building being demolished.
The first step to obtain a demolition order was taken in February last year when signs notifying interested and affected parties of the deadline to object to or comment on a Heritage Impact Assessment (Hia) report for Erf 46732-RE went up.
The Hia report is a precursor to applying for a demolition permit.
According to Kubheka, the Hia report has since been completed and submitted to Heritage Western Cape (HWC) who approved the demolition of Welverdiend in July last year.
Kubheka states that among the feedback received from stakeholders, there were no recommendations submitted with regards to the development of the site.
“However, Heritage Western Cape requested a landscaping plan indicating which trees of heritage value would be retained and what the boundary wall would look like when viewed from the street.”
She adds that all comments were submitted to the City of Cape Town for consideration.
“However, the submissions were not considered of a heritage nature. Those objecting to the development plans were invited to join a meeting, but they did not take up the invitation. Furthermore, there were 14 days after the date of the Record of Decision for objections to be raised. The documentation was sent to those who objected to the development. However, no further comments were received,” says Kubheka.
During a media briefing held on Tuesday 21 January last year, Thabo Mashologu, general manager for property development and investment at Communicare, said the plan was to redevelop the property into 175 affordable rental units targeted at the gap market of people earning between R15 000 and R22 000 a month.
However, Kubheka told People’s Post this month that they are currently reviewing the viability study and working on the optimal design of the building.
“Final building and site development plans will be submitted to HWC for approval. The plans will incorporate the landscaping recommendations suggested by HWC,” she says.
As to when Communicare will go ahead to apply for a demolition order, Kubheka says Communicare will proceed with the application once the remaining tenants have vacated.
“We currently do not have a time frame for the demolition,” she says.
Ongoing court case
When People’s Post shared Communicare’s response with Engelbrecht, he said Communicare could “stuff that information deep where it doesn’t shine”.
“First of all, we don’t even know if they exist in law. Second, we don’t know if the buildings and land belong to them,” he said.
Engelbrecht was referring to an ongoing lands claim court case which arose after year-long assertions by tenants disputing Communicare’s ownership of properties in Cape Town.
On Monday 29 November last year, the Land Claims Court compelled the Deeds Office to provide all the documents related to Communicare’s ownership of “selected properties”.
As far as People’s Post can ascertain, Welverdiend is not included in this list of selected properties.
In a media statement issued on Monday 6 December last year, Communicare said it looked forward to the court ruling, stating it would finally end the speculation and allegations made against Communicare.
“Communicare is registered and in good standing with the Companies and Intellectual Property Commission (CIPC). Communicare is also in good standing with Sars and conducts an annual audit by an independent audit firm. The organisation is compliant in every respect as a legal entity as confirmed by the audit. All property owned by Communicare is registered with the Deeds Office,” he said.
During a CapeTalk radio interview last year, Bonakele Ndlova, the attorney who represents the occupiers of Communicare properties, said the registrar of deeds was there to prove, among others, that Communicare does exist and that there were company registration documents relating to them and that all the land that had been transferred to them had been done so lawfully. He claimed the registrar of deeds was cited as a party in the lands claim case against Communicare but that they never replied or responded.
“They said the report they initially gave us was adequate,” said Ndlova.
He said that was when they approached the Land Claims Court.
“What one must understand is that the registrar of deeds is a default system of registration. It is called a negative system. They don’t go into the background or the history of how you acquired the property. They just take the word of the conveyancer who has a conveyancer certificate that he or she signs to say that they have complied with all necessary requirements and they have done their due diligence and indeed that person that says they own the property are the true owners.
“So in that instance, the deeds is just a default registry, it does not investigate. However, if you dispute ownership, then only will they look into further details of your claim,” he claimed.
People’s Post contacted the Registrar of Deeds, Cape Town, asking when they estimated the deeds office would be able to provide this information to the court.
Their reply was: “As your query results to a matter before the courts, we will not respond.”
