Residents of a Tokai cul-de-sac, where a developer with a history of flouting building regulations is busy with his latest project, have accused the City of mounting a “toothless” response to alleged transgressions at the site.
The City is threatening to take legal action against Wayne Hufkie, a lawyer and property developer with a reputation for building first and asking questions later, if he does not comply with a notice issued after an inspector allegedly found building transgressions at the Tokai site. But this is not the first time that Mr Hufkie has faced threats of court action for flouting building regulations.
The plot at 5 Crane Close is owned by Walloon Prop, and company records list Mr Hufkie as the sole director.
Residents of Crane Close say they first learnt of plans to develop the corner plot about six weeks ago when trees and shrubs were cut down.
Then the three-bedroom double-storey house was demolished – with the exception of the double garage – and trenches were dug for foundations, according to Saskia Irvine, who lives next door.
The owners of the seven houses in the cul-de-sac had found all of that odd as they had not been approached about approving any building plans, she said.
Rob Ervine said the builders had told him that four-to-six duplexes were to be built on the property.
Enquiring at the City’s planning office, Ms Ervine was told that plans had been submitted to develop three dwellings on the plot, but they had not yet been approved.
“They also say that an inspection was conducted by the City planning department at the property on Monday July 25 and was followed with a stop-works order being issued. This has been ignored by the developer,” said Ms Ervine.
They approached their councillor, Carolynne Franklin, who visited the site on Tuesday August 2.
She told the Bulletin that she had been ushered off the property by a Mr Mvamba who had told her he was “the boss”.
“He was curt, abrasive, most uncooperative and very unfriendly. He told me he only takes orders from Mr Hufkie and that he has no knowledge of any stop-works order.”
She said Mr Mvamba had known about an initial visit by the City’s building inspector, Alvino Horn, but had insisted that no follow-up had been done.
“As far as he is concerned, he may continue with the demolition and building work until he has sight of the stop-works order, and/or is legally or physically forced to cease with the ongoing construction,” said Ms Franklin.
She suggested that the affected residents urgently seek legal advice on how to stop the development.
She said the City would meanwhile approach the Western Cape High Court “and not fiddle around with lower legal structures. This will however take some time and be costly”.
The Ervines accused the City of not doing enough to stop the development. “Why is the City so toothless at stopping this? Surely there are many options open to you, such as disconnecting water and electricity, closing off the entrance to the property, or having it declared as derelict as there is no longer a house there,” said Ms Ervine.
Charles Retief, another resident in Crane Close, said he had had “a very unsatisfactory response from the council” when he had emailed it about the development.
“It appears that work is being done without the approvals, which is a requirement. If number 5 Crane Close is being renovated to become a multiple dwelling residential then a rezoning would surely be required. I recall my addition of a ‘granny flat’ required me receiving approval from all four of my adjoining neighbours.”
Mayoral committee member for spatial planning and environment Eddie Andrews said a City building inspector had found transgressions of the national building regulations on site and had issued the relevant notices to the property owner.
“The matter will be handed over to the legal department for high court action should they fail to comply with the notice,” he said in an emailed response to questions.
He did not reply to questions about the cost of this legal action, how long it would take or whether rezoning had been requested.
This is not the first time that Mr Andrews has commented about Mr Hufkie. In 2018, when Mr Andrews was the mayoral committee member for area south, he said Mr Hufkie had flouted building regulations, at that time, on three occasions (“Lawyer in property row,” Bulletin, June 21, 2018).
Mr Andrews said at the time that Mr Hufkie had paid a R100 000 fine for illegal building in Sunbury Road in Elfindale and had appealed a R100 000 fine for a Constantia property.
Construction work, which the City said was illegal, on a third property, in Hancock Road, Plumstead, had been submitted to the Municipal Planning Tribunal for a decision on the amount of the fine and the exact nature of the building transgressions.
The Bulletin is aware that building ultimately went ahead at all three properties.
In a more recent case, Mr Hufkie went ahead with building work – despite not having municipal approval – at a site on the corner of Kendal Road and Titus Way (“Lawyer flouts building regulations… again,” March 11, 2021). Today two houses stand on the property.
When we visited the Crane Close property on Tuesday, three men were working on-site. We were told that the foreman, Mr Mvamba, was not there and our later calls to his cellphone went unanswered.
We asked workmen at the site what they were building. They said they did not know but it would be a double storey.
We initially made contact with Mr Hufkie by phone and email on Thursday August 18 and again on Monday August 22 to ask if he had received the emails. He said he would check them and then hung up. And despite many follow-ups, he did not respond to messages left at his office or to emails by Tuesday evening.
