Church land in dispute in court
IT HAS been 14 years since the Roman Catholic Church bought a property in Inanda intending to build a new church – but to date it has not been able to take occupation of the site because, it alleges, it is being illegally “leased” to a panel beater who refuses to move.
And although the church finally took the matter to the Durban High Court last year in a bid for an eviction order, it remains far from resolved – with allegations that the property belongs to the “community” and that the sale was unlawful.
In the application before the court, St Joseph’s Church board member Nkosinathi Sibisi said the sale agreement with Felicia Mngadi (on behalf of a deceased estate) to buy the property for R90 000 was entered into in 2001 and the property was transferred to the archdiocese in 2003.
Sibisi said at the time that the property – land with a dilapidated building – was occupied by tenants who claimed to have leases with Clement Ngcobo.
The archdiocese wanted to renovate the building and use it as a church. Sibisi was tasked with getting rid of the “tenants”, but Ngcobo insisted that he first get the permission of the “local council”.
“In an effort not to be dismissive of the community, I contacted the council member of the area who agreed to the evictions, but Ngcobo still carried on with his business there,” said Sibisi.
All other attempts to resolve the situation – including asking Ngcobo to sign a lease agreement – were futile.
Not wishing to go to court, Cardinal Wilfred Napier was advised of the situation and presented with options of either disposing of the property or putting security there, and the church agreed on the latter.
Stalemate
By this stage, only the panel-beating business was operating from the premises.
Another meeting was held with Ngcobo, but the stalemate continued.
After launching the court application last year, the matter was adjourned several times to give Ngcobo an opportunity to file an opposing affidavit which he finally did last week.
In it, he says the property was once owned by a man called “Gina”. In the early 1980s, Gina had entered into an agreement with the municipality, the terms of which he did not know, but which resulted in the property’s being transferred to the municipality “for the benefit of all persons residing” in the area.
Ngcobo said he was a member of the Inanda Community Development Trust which, together with the municipality, managed the area and kept track of property transfers.
“During the late 1980s a politician, Sibongo Mngadi asked the community to allow him to use the building as a supermarket. He promised to develop the area and build lowcost housing. However, he failed to honour this promise. The community became furious and, fearing for his life, he fled in the early 1990s. I later heard he had died,” Ngcobo said.
“It came as a shock to us to hear that Felicia Mngadi had sold the property when (the deceased) was never the owner and he could not have had the original title deed.”
He accused Sibisi of “misleading the court”, saying not only had he not resided on the property, he had also not leased it to others.
He said the “dilapidated building” was being used as a community hall.
The matter has
been
adjourned.