The Constitutional Court has refused to hear a bid to overturn the SCA’s ruling that a nine-storey development – in Currie Road on Durban’s Berea – did not have to be partially demolished. The court said an application for leave to appeal bore no prospects of success, notes a report in The Mercury. The development has been the source of discord between neighbouring residents and the developer, Serengeti Rise Industries, since October 2014.

At the core of the dispute was that the development was initially zoned as General Residential One (GR1), but then the eThekwini Municipality approved its rezoning to a GR5.

This permitted a much larger development that, the residents maintained, loomed large over their properties and blocked the views and sunshine. When the matter came before the KZN High Court (Durban), Judge Esther Steyn ruled the building was to be partially demolished in order to comply with the original zoning.

Steyn found that public notice rules had been flouted and the subsequent rezoning of the site was unlawful.

However, the SCA ruled that while the High Court had found that the rezoning was unlawful, it had made no orders to that effect and therefore any approvals made by the municipality remained valid.

The SCA also said the High Court’s order lacked ‘certainty and clarity’ and that the judge had failed to exercise her discretion in order to grant an order that was ‘just and equitable’.

Full report in The Mercury (subscription needed)