Imperial Holdings sacked the head of its property division, John Carstens, on Wednesday, and the company faces legal action after demolishing a heritage site.
The Rand Steam Laundries was demolished last weekend, in apparent contravention of a stop order issued by the provincial heritage authority. Nthathise Modingoane, a spokesÂÂperson for the council, confirmed that the city has laid a charge and is briefing its attorneys on the matter.
The Mail & Guardian is in possession of correspondence, which indicates that Imperial was well aware of the property’s heritage status and was willing to comply with the National Heritage Resources Act. However, the company is likely to receive a mere R10 000 fine for its actions, unless a clause requiring the owners to rebuild the structures is invoked.
Imperial has a market cap of nearly R20-billion and is listed on the JSE’s Top 40 index. It is involved in logistics, car rental and vehicle sales.
The laundry, established in 1902, was provisionally declared a provincial heritage site in September 2006. The Provincial Heritage Resources Authority of Gauteng (PHRAG) sent Imperial a notification to declare the site in October last year. It informed the company that ”the immediate effect of this notice is to protect your property temporarily for six months” and that a permit must be issued by PHRAG for any changes ”which you may intend making during this period”.
On Wednesday Hubert Brody, chief executive of Imperial, said the company believed it acted lawfully and had obtained a demolition order from the council. Brody said the order was given ”in the interest of public safety” and called for demolition within 15 days of issue or to appoint a structural engineer to make a recommendation. He said a firm of structural engineers was consulted. The firm ”strongly” recommended demolition of the building. ”The action to demolish was taken in the interest of safety and not with development plans in mind,” he said.
”However, our people did not give adequate regard to the possible historic and cultural considerations regarding the property. We apologise unreservedly for this error of judgement,” the statement read.
”We are outraged that the owners and developers went ahead with the demolition of a 106-year-old building despite an order preventing them from doing so,” said Phil Harrison, the city’s executive director for development planning and urban management.
Harrison said PHRAG attempted to stop the demolition process on 11 January, but could not prevent the destruction of the historical site. ”We will work with the relevant conservation authorities to ensure that the demolishers are prosecuted and so send out a message to developers to keep their hands of historical buildings in Johannesburg,” he said.