Weekend Argus (Saturday Edition)
Blow to Mavericks ‘house of strippers’
City club owner’s ‘intrusive’ development gets second court snub Molefe could replace Gordhan
THE City of Cape Town has twice teamed up with Mavericks strip club owner Shane Harrison who wants to expand his business and block previously undisturbed views of Table Bay harbour from owners and residents of the upmarket Four Seasons block of flats.
And now, twice, the courts have ruled against the city and Mavericks, setting aside the city’s approval of the development.
With Harrison’s building being built right up to their balconies, the property values of the Four Seasons flats in the CBD plummeted. The block is located metres away from Mavericks on the corner of Buitenkant and Barrack Streets.
It’s believed Harrison intends building a hotel named The Oracle, but residents and owners feared he would open another strip-related business, or housing for Mavericks’ strippers. Harrison has denied that the development would house Mavericks’ strippers.
Presently, they are are housed in a building next door to Mavericks, on the Barrack Street side.
Construction on Harrison’s building began in 2007, but was stalled and construction resumed early 2012. He was subsequently granted permission by the city to extend it upwards. Residents of Four Seasons were granted an interdict to halt the development in December 2012.
By then, Harrison’s building had blocked the views of flats occupying several storeys of Four Seasons, and had been built right up to their balconies.
The body corporate, owners and residents had watched their views vanish as the development encroached on their flats.
Letters circulated informing owners of the block that the City of Cape Town had granted Harrison permission to extend the building upwards. After the 2012 interdict, Harrison and the city didn’t leave it there.
Instead, they took the case on judicial review in the Western Cape High Court, intent on continuing the development, but this was dismissed by Judge Ashley Binns-Ward in January.
The judge ordered the city and the developer contracted by Harrison, Simcha Trust, to pay the costs of the legal dispute with the Four Seasons Body Corporate.
In his ruling, Judge Binns-Ward said the owners of Four Seasons had not been informed of the development.
The judge said the development “destroyed the utility of the balconies” and was “overbearingly intrusive, allowing a solid threestorey wall to be built up hard against the balconies on the eighth floor of the Four Seasons building and close to the windows on the ninth and tenth floors”.
He ruled the city should be a moderator between the conflicting interests of owners and ordered it to disregard the city official who approved the application, Peter Henshall-Howard.
“Someone without his preconceived opinion should decide the matter,” the judge said.
The judge ordered the city to appoint a new official to handle the matter, who should be a moderator between the parties.
Harrison, who is well known for employing strippers from Russia, worked closely with gang boss Cyril Beeka before Beeka was murdered in 2011.
With his Russian lover, Natalia Mordvinova, Beeka had arranged for Mavericks’ Russian strippers to get legal passports, allegedly through connections with a travel agency and a Department of Home Affairs official, several sources have told Weekend Argus.
Brett Herron, mayoral committee member for transport and urban development, said the city had applied for leave to appeal the judgment, and would not make any other comment on the case.
Harrison said last night: “We’re going to join the city and appeal the decision.
“We are planning to build a hotel and apartment blocks there. We haven’t changed our minds, but we are being held up by the court case.
When asked about concerns about whether the building would house strippers, he said: “It would be wrong to think that, because that is not the case.”
henriette.geldenhuys@inl.co.za FORMER Eskom chief executive Brian Molefe’s move to Parliament has intensified speculation that President Jacob Zuma is poised to appoint him to the cabinet to replace Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan.
Molefe, who resigned under a cloud late last year, will soon be sworn in as a member of Parliament, the legislature confirmed yesterday.
Molefe resigned from Eskom in November over allegations of influence peddling.
He denied wrongdoing after being implicated in a report by the former public protector.
There has been widespread speculation that Zuma will reshuffle his cabinet with earlier reports claiming this would occur after the State of the Nation Address.
Parliament concluded the debate on the address this week and Gordhan is scheduled to table his Budget next week.
Zuma’s spokesman Bongani