Hijacked bowls club set for R100m boost
Residents of affluent suburb say property is being used for prostitution, drug dealing and stripping cables
Nestled between two affluent Johannesburg suburbs, an unused bowls club that was hijacked by waste pickers and homeless people more than a decade ago is set to undergo a transformation.
The City of Johannesburg has awarded a contract to a company to build a mixed-used development at the old Parkhurst Bowling and Soccer Club opposite the Pikitup waste centre on Victory Road that borders Greenside. It will include shops and 294 social and affordable housing units.
The move has been welcomed by residents, who say the hijacked club is being used for prostitution, drug dealing and stripping cables, and that crime has spiked in the area as more people have moved onto the site. Several shacks have also been built on the property’s grounds.
But the development hinges on the council finding alternative accommodation for the about 73 people now living on the site —a legal requirement that has stymied the development of hijacked buildings in the city many times in the past.
Lucky Sindane, spokesperson for the Johannesburg Property Company (JPC), which manages and develops the City of Johannesburg’s property assets, said the city had not yet been able to find temporary emergency accommodation (TEA) for the people living on the property, “as demand for [such accommodation] is too high”.
It is the fifth time the contract has gone out to tender. Sindane said there had been no response from developers the previous four times.
“People do their research. They go on site and look at the place. When they see the challenges there, they realise there will be problems,” he said.
The group awarded the tender, Genzenix, includes Sandton-based BEE property development company Nthoese Development. The development has a total expected investment value of R100m.
Genzenix this week responded to concerns from some residents that it did not appear to have a track record in development. The group told the Sunday Times it had been involved in the redevelopment of the Fedsure Forum building in Pretoria (which houses several provincial and national government departments), 137 Daisy Street (the City of Johannesburg’s regional offices) and 56 Eloff Street (Umnotho House, which houses the Gauteng department of agriculture & rural development).
In a written reply, Genzenix said it could not respond to further specific questions about the development. “Suffice [it] to mention that Genzenix is a registered entity, we responded to a tender/bid invitation by [the] JPC with full transparency, and [we] believe we were subjected to the same assessment criteria as all other applicants.”
The Sunday Times visited the club this week. The occupiers of the property were threatening and refused to speak to us. They asked for our contact details and said someone would call us, but no-one did.
Parkhurst Residents and Business Owners Association (PRBOA) chairperson Mike Rosholt said the property had been a problem for a long time, and several murders had occurred there.
“People living close to the property are complaining about [a rise in] criminal activity such as housebreaking, theft of cars, drugs and cable theft. The [occupiers] also use the bowling club to strip cables. It is not good at all.”
Rosholt said people had been living on the property since 2011, but “it got worse during the Covid-19 pandemic”.
“We’ve had a task team working on this from Parkhurst, Greenside and Emmarentia for a year and a half, but they are not any closer to resolving the issue,” he said.
“We are always hopeful. After so many years, to see some work done there would be fantastic. We have petitioned the city to clean up the site and get the people living there into alternative accommodation, as well as to secure the property to prevent its further occupation. But we have not had any joy. We will resubmit our petition to the city manager, [and] we are contemplating taking legal action. We want the city to do their work and enforce the bylaws.”
Rosholt said residents had not yet seen the plans for the site but would not oppose a mixed development.
“Obviously a developed site is better than what is there now. But a mixed development with an element of social housing is probably acceptable and required. A lot of people who work in these areas do not have anywhere to live. The question is how much of [the new development] is [going to be] social housing versus everything else.”
Sindane said a recent JPC audit had revealed that, of the people living on the site, 14 were South African, nine were documented foreign nationals, and 50 were undocumented foreigners.
“The property has been hijacked since 2009. Those who hijack properties must face the full might of the law. The city will continue to work with various law enforcement agencies to ensure we deal with the problem of hijacked properties.
“It is essential that we bring back the rule of law in our city and take it back from criminal elements such as landlords who take advantage of desperate people and house them in deplorable conditions,” he said.
Neo Goba, spokesperson for the city’s human settlements department, which is obliged to find TEA for those evicted from properties, said its priority was to relocate everyone, whether they were in the country legally or illegally, to a place of safety.
“After an audit of the [people evicted], those illegally in the country will be reported to the department of home affairs, which will then follow through with its processes. The foreign nationals legally in the country have the same rights to housing as South African citizens,” Goba said.
The announcement of the tender to redevelop the Parkhurst site follows the controversial suspension of a waste-recycling initiative operating across the road from the bowls club, next to the Pikitup site, on land leased from the City of Johannesburg by Pirates sports club.
The WastePreneurs nonprofit organisation initiative was operated by Adreach through its Adopt-a-Project partnership with the City of Johannesburg. The company’s Brad Fisher said the scheme removed nearly 70 tonnes of waste a month, including non-recyclable material that would otherwise land up in Joburg’s overflowing landfills.
He said that initially WastePreneurs had been able to assist its members to find accommodation in hostels, so they didn’t have to live in nearby Delta Park and other areas near the suburbs where they worked.
“Unfortunately, illegal immigration and Covid-19 have resulted in the unavailability of low-income accommodation and worsened the growth of informal settlements. A case in point is the old bowls club.
“The city’s recent actions in succumbing to pressure from local residents’ associations and suspending activities at the WastePreneurs site ... is short-sighted and will only make the problem worse. Waste pickers will ultimately have to sort their materials in parks and other open areas as is happening in places such as Sandton as opposed to behind closed doors alongside Pikitup, where waste is already being managed.”
He said four to five tonnes of “unsaleable waste” was sorted and removed each month. “This plus more is going to end up back in our parks and natural areas.”
However, the Emmarentia Residents Association, the Greenside Residents Association, the PRBOA and the Parkview Community Policing Forum (CPF) denied they had lobbied for the site’s closure.
“We have received feedback from Parkview police via the CPF that it was a spike in crimes involving the theft of copper pipes, as well as business and residential burglaries
that prompted the police to start monitoring that site,” they said. “Subsequent visits to that site with other stakeholders led the police to close it on the basis of its noncompliance with various [legislative provisions] relating to land use and the reclamation of solid waste.”
They said Adreach “treats the local residents’ concerns as overblown, and resident frustration as misdirected”.
“However, [it] overlooks the fact that the WastePreneurs site was always unlawful. Their activities are contrary to the zoning and the National Environmental Waste Management Act, among other legislation.
“Adreach failed to get necessary permissions or meaningfully consult with affected residents before setting up the site, and they have failed to manage the process as promised.”
The City of Johannesburg has said in the past that the waste management facility does not have the required environmental authorisation “in keeping with both national legislation and municipal bylaws”.