THE heart of Port Elizabeth is being ripped out, Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille said during a tour of property magnate Ken Denton’s dilapidated properties in Central yesterday.

Denton has been criticised for allowing his properties to fall into a state of disrepair.

“It is crucial to protect the goose that lays the golden egg and to look after the economic hub and the economic core of the city,” she said.

“This is an issue of maintaining the economic base of Port Elizabeth and of ensuring investments continue to come because if the economic hub is undermined, the purse of the poor will suffer most.

“If you allow the inner core of your metro to decline, your economy goes into a downward spiral,” she said.

During the tour, Zille kept repeating how shocked she was on actually seeing the condition of Denton’s buildings.

“That is why the decline of central Port Elizabeth is going to have such devastating consequences for everybody ...

“Every city has people like Ken Denton . . . (who) are prepared to undermine the potential of an entire city centre.

“They catch those properties on the way down, wait for them to hit rock bottom and then they catch the upward wave. They do that by letting those properties decline to the point of collapse, and then they’re able to undertake urban renewal and make a killing in profit,” she said.

“In their own personal interest, such speculators destroy much of the capacity of the city. If the economic base of the city is undermined, then investment stays away and economic decline begins.”

Zille pointed out that a legal opinion had been commissioned 30 months ago in which Denton was specifically mentioned. The opinion stated “executive responsibility vests in the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality as local authority” and the municipal authorities had to act in terms of sections of the Health Act, the Housing Act and the National Building Regulations and Building Standards Act. They are also required to act under the National Heritage Resources Act.

“They (the council) kept this legal opinion under wraps for 30 months and (have) done nothing. That is nothing short of scandalous,” she said.

Zille brought a draft of the Western Cape’s new “Problem Building Bylaws, 2009” and handed it over to the DA caucus leader in Nelson Mandela Bay, Leon de Villiers.

The law still has to go through public participation processes but, if passed, will enable the city to declare rundown buildings “problem buildings”. The city will be enabled to instruct owners to correct the problem within a given period of time. Failure to comply will be punishable with a very hefty fine or imprisonment of two years, or both.

“I would like to ask (De Villiers) please to take (the law) forward as a bylaw tabled in this metropole by the DA and to take action against people like Ken Denton who are taking this city into a one way path to decline,” she said. Zille said the places Denton chose were prime property “and you won’t get more prime property in this area. It’s old Port Elizabeth. It’s got a fantastic access to the harbour and the sea. It is perfectly located property and property developers know where to find declining, well located properties to make a killing through urban renewal.”

Cape Town had exactly the same problem. “We’re not immune. The City of Cape Town took action and put an enormous effort into turning round the city centre.” They had brought crime down by 90% in the city centre and upgraded most of the buildings in partnership with the private sector. “Billions of rands in investments” were now flowing into Cape Town “partly as a result of taking action against slumlords and slum buildings”.