Govt finally renovates Consulate

The building, at 53 and 55 Kuyper Street, had been left at the mercy of vandals and the homeless – many of them Zimbabweans – after it was abandoned with no explanation in 2006.

A City of Cape Town official, Alderman JP Smith, said last year that the Zimbabwean government owed the city some R500,000 in unpaid rates for the building, but projected that the figure could rise to a substantial amount if the local authority took over the renovations.

After several letters asking the government to clean up the building were ignored, Smith said it could be attached and auctioned to recover the rates. But inside sources told The Zimbabwean recently that the government had begun to renovate the building, which could be re-opened before the end of the year.

“The work has been going on for some months and if all goes well, the offices could be re-opened before the end of this year because there was not much damage to the building,” said the source, who was not able to name the contracted company or how much it would cost.

City of Cape Town officials confirmed that there was work going on, which the local authority had no hand in.

“The City is not involved, but from external observations, a substantial amount of renovations and repairs have been done and this is very welcome,” said Councillor Brett Herron, under whose jurisdiction the building falls.

He said the local authority was following appropriate legal channels to get the outstanding amount from the Zimbabwe government, but would not speculate on how long the process would take.

No official comment could be obtained from the Zimbabwean Embassy, which has refused to speak on the matter since the building was shut down.

The building is one of the four properties that were once put up for auction, after AfriForum, on behalf of the Commercial Farmer’s Union, had successfully approached the North Gauteng High Court to have properties belonging to the Zimbabwe government seized and sold to reimburse farmers whose land had been expropriated.

However, the process was put on hold after government launched an application with both the North and the South-Gauteng High Court to set the decision aside.