Crumbling Quigney apartment block spreads local misery
For businesses operating around the dilapidated Currie Court apartment block in East London’s Quigney area, trading has become a daily struggle.
They have to find ways to keep their surroundings clean and safe as illegal occupants live in the derelict building under appalling conditions.
The flats made headlines last year when a fire nearly destroyed the entire building.
The 16 flats were in a shocking state when the Dispatch visited the building yesterday. .
There is no running water, no sanitation and no electricity.
Owen Taylor, the owner of Centurion, the business next door, said it had all begun to affect his business.
The flats were a health hazard to the entire community but all his complaints to BCM’s disaster management department had produced no results, he said.
Questions were sent to BCM spokesperson Samkelo Ngwenya yesterday morning, but there was no response provided by print deadline last night.
“All the sewage is just running into the ground. Litter is thrown on top of the sewage.
Because there’s no sanitation in the building, the toilets have been turned into places to stay.
“Some residents deal in drugs and the cops sometimes raid there, but nothing gets sorted out, and my business is taking a knock because of this,” Taylor said.
He said some of his customers have had their cars broken into while they were inside his shop.
“It’s not safe. Everyday we have to clean up the rubbish in front of the shop. The urine and other smells we have to deal with when it’s hot outside are just unbearable,” Taylor said.
An owner of six shops beneath the double-storey flats, who asked not to be identified, said they had been trying to sell the shops, but “no-one is interested because of this situation”.
He said they had spent more than R7,500 cleaning Currie Court, but the illegal occupants “continued to make a mess”. “We’ve stopped now. “I’ve been threatened by these people before. This is really difficult because I don’t want to expose myself. I have heard that a flat for two people now houses about 30 people.”
DA PR councillor Lindsey Pollock
of ward 47 said after being approached by Taylor she also reported the block to BCM’s environmental health, “but nothing ever came out of that”.
“People can’t live like this. We’ve seen this happening in Moore Street for probably five years. This can’t continue,” said Pollock.
“These flats should be demolished because they are unstable. In fact there is a boundary wall that is threatening the structure of Centurion and if it falls, it will cause damage and maybe even death.”
One of the illegal occupants, Alphus Omari from Zanzibar, said he had lived in Currie Court for four years with his two children and girlfriend, and they would be stranded if they were evicted.
Omari said there were more than 70 people living in the building. “We don’t have anywhere to go.
“We don’t have any water or anything but we’re surviving. It’s not only [foreigners] here, there’s Xhosa people too.”
Omari denied there was drug dealing or prostitution taking place at Currie Court.
“Those people who say that must come with proof. If we were doing those things we would not be living like this.”