City impounds tools used in illegal building work in Edgemead

12 August 2026

Earlier today, 12 August 2026, the City of Cape Town has impounded building tools and equipment that are being used in illegal building works at a property in Edgemead. This impoundment is in terms of the Municipal Planning By-law that was revised in June last year to allow the City to take decisive action against those who are ignoring notices to cease illegal building work. This intervention was executed by the City’s Development Management Department, with the support of the City’s Law Enforcement.

‘Today, we have executed an impoundment at a privately owned property in Edgemead where the owner has simply ignored our notices to stop the illegal building work on his erf. This is the very reason why we have amended the Municipal Planning By-law in June last year, namely, to give the City immediate recourse when an owner or developer ignores the orders to stop work as they are willing to simply pay the fines involved. These matters often take a long time to be concluded in court, meanwhile the surrounding communities are impacted as we are seeking legal recourse.

‘Hopefully, today’s intervention will demonstrate that we are serious about clamping down on building contraventions across the city. We can impound the developer’s movable property, the owner’s movable property and those belonging to the contractor involved in the illegal work. To date, most owners have complied once we have issued notices of the intent to impound. But in this instance, the owner has simply continued with the illegal building work,’ said the City’s Deputy Mayor and Mayoral Committee Member for Spatial Planning and Environment, Alderman Eddie Andrews.

Context to the impoundment operation in Edgemead:

The City conducted a site inspection on 21 July 2026 where the process of how to obtain a legal building plan was explained to the owner, as well as the consequences should the illegal building work continue.

Unfortunately, the illegal building work was not stopped.

As such, the City has served the Notice of intent to impound on 29 July 2026.

A land use management application to subdivide the said property is still being assessed by the City. The owner can only submit a building plan for assessment once the LUM application has been processed and approved. Should the subdivision be approved, the owner first needs to register the new erven at the Deeds Office, and thereafter the building plan can be submitted for each of the erven where a new building will be built.

‘Thus, in this case, the owner simply refuses to wait for the LUM application to be finalised and decided to start with the building work. The City’s building inspectors also collected photographic evidence of the illegal work on site that indicates how far this has gone already. The owner left us with no alternative but to impound,’ said Alderman Andrews.

The impounded assets will be safely stored until the owner has paid the release fee.

• The City has 76 building inspectors who conduct on average 16 000 inspections per month at building sites across Cape Town. 
  
• The most common contraventions are building without an approved plan, or deviating from approved plans, and these are mostly by private individuals.

‘This is but another example of how some believe themselves to be above the law. And, because of these scofflaws, we have been compelled to strengthen existing by-laws like the Municipal Planning By-law and our recently gazetted Traffic By-law, to allow for tougher sanctions where needed. Illegal building work appears innocuous enough, until the property becomes a risk to its inhabitants and surrounding community, or ends up as a hub for nefarious activities like brothels or drug dens,’ said Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security, Alderman JP Smith.