Prime Senza premises still empty
What was last called Senza restaurant, located in one of the best locations in Knysna with their venue perched right on the sea at the Heads, looks likely to remain empty this holiday season.
The notoriously indebted restaurant finally shut up shop earlier this year but still owing the Knysna municipality almost R7-million in unpaid rent and other municipal accounts – a debt which the owner said he had no intention of ever paying.
The municipality had to resort to court action to not only force the restaurant to close up shop after failing to stop trading when its lease was terminated at the end 2016, but to also claim the unpaid rent and other arrears.
Then, on 2 May this year, all the furniture belonging to owner Roland Walker was removed from the restaurant, loaded up and taken away by him to an undisclosed destination.
Even on the day of the eviction, Walker was adamant that the municipality could have avoided the almost decade-long saga.
The eviction followed the lease agreement expiring, but despite this the restaurant carried on trading through the 2016/2017 holiday season.
The municipality put locks on the premises, but removed them only days later, and the restaurant continued trading until being forced by the court order to vacate the premises – by 1 May, 2017.
Councillor for Ward 9, which includes the Heads area, Mark Willemse, said at the time of the final evacuation, “It’s been a long fight.
“In March it was resolved by mutual agreement that they would vacate the premises by the end of April. Seeing as yesterday (Monday 1 May) was a public holiday they are vacating today as per court order,” he said.
Legal battle continues
In previous reports in the Knysna-Plett Herald, municipal comment was that there was an ongoing legal battle for the outstanding money – and that it had since implemented and enforced stricter revenue collection as well as rewritten its lease agreements to prevent a similar situation in the future.
At the time of the evacuation, acting municipal manager Johnny Douglas said, “The Knysna municipality will not be writing off the arrears and will be continuing with the ongoing court battle to reclaim the R6 918 673.43 owed to us by Senza.”
As of today, this money has not been recovered by the municipality from Walker. It is not clear at what stage the legal battle is, and what has been spent by the municipality on legal fees has never been disclosed.
Most recently, municipal spokesperson Christopher Bezuidenhout said, “The tender for proposals for the lease and development of portion of Erf 1406 (the Heads) was advertised on 1 August and closed on 6 September [2017]. At the closing date only three submissions were received. None of the proposals proved to be feasible or economically viable and as such were deemed nonresponsive. The user department is currently in the process to review the specifications and the tender will be readvertised in the new year. An application for a “pop-up” tourism-related business venture is currently with the municipal manager for consideration, said Bezuidenhout, who added, “In terms of the status of the legal proceedings, a court order was granted in favour of the municipality.
“We are currently exploring the options available to council to recover the outstanding debt and legal costs.”