Lawyers’ rent row becomes a race row
● Lawyer and former ANC Youth League leader Anton Lembede would turn in his grave if he knew what was going on in the Durban building that bears a monumental mural of him.
The building houses 132 advocates and three firms of attorneys and is at the centre of a spat over rent after the landlord published the names of five junior black advocates, who owed rent, on the electronic notice board in the lobby of 6 Durban Club Place.
Despite heated objections by senior advocate Laurence Broster the names remained on the television screen for about a week, although Broster at one stage attempted to cover the screen with paper.
Griffits Madonsela, the chairman of the Society of Advocates, said: “What was remarkable was that all five were black and had less than three years at the bar.
“I spoke to each one … and discovered that three out of five had in the preceding two or three days made firm commitments to bring their arrears up to date.
“Then I discovered that a substantial number of other, white, advocates were in arrears for much larger amounts and I took the view that this was downright racist.”
The building is jointly owned by Sumgeni and Urban Lime.
The issue was resolved after Broster and another advocate, Clayton Edy, met Urban Lime CEO Jonny Friedman.
Edy said Friedman had conceded it was “an experiment that had not worked”.
But the row did not end there.
About 40 advocates in the building have been withholding rent since last year. They say they are being overcharged for electricity and that the landlord was not maintaining the lifts and air conditioning, not providing security and not cleaning the bathrooms.
There has been infighting among the advocates about how to deal with the issue.
Broster — who was seen by some as siding with the landlord — resigned on Friday as head of the housing committee.
In a memorandum, he said: “Like Theresa May I have clearly lost my constituency … unlike May I am not prepared to cling to a post where I consider both sides are behaving particularly badly.”
In an earlier response to the Sunday Times, Broster confirmed it was a “stressful time” because some advocates wanted to renew their leases and some, like Edy, did not.
Urban Lime has denied allegations of racism. The company, which is behind several urban regeneration projects in the city, said the names published were selected from lists of those who were in arrears by more than two months, had failed to raise issues or disputes and were unresponsive to demands. It said the five with the highest arrears who met the above criteria were placed on the electronic notice board.
“We are not immune to the tricky economic times and we assist where we can, but nonpayment puts immense financial strain on the landlord,” said Urban Lime’s group marketing director, Katie Friedman.
She said, with regard to security and housekeeping, there were six full-time guards, a continuous maintenance programme and three full-time housekeepers.
Friedman said allegations of overcharging were “simply untrue”.
“The charges were agreed to by the housing committee. Unhappy tenants may seek arbitration. The vast majority of tenants are happy and pay their rent. As of January this year, 28 advocates were in arrears and eight in discussion to resolve issues. The other 20 have not given any explanation for withholding rents.”
Like Theresa May I have clearly lost my constituency … unlike May I am not prepared to cling to a post Laurence Broster
Head of the building’s housing committee