City Building Inspectors with a heart for the community

13 September 2023

The City of Cape Town is celebrating the vital role it’s Building Inspectors play in ensuring a safe built environment in Cape Town. These building inspectors work closely with the communities which they serve and are passionate about raising awareness about safe building processes and methods, especially in less privileged suburbs. Meet Building Inspectors Faizel Amoo from Athlone; Nompumelelo Williams from Khayelitsha and Ayanda Van Wyk from Kuils River to hear about how they serve their specific areas in Cape Town.

Faizel Amoo, a Principal Building Inspector for the City of Cape Town for the last 25 years. He started his career in Khayelitsha, Mitchells Plain, Eersterivier and Blackheath. In 2020 he relocated to the Cape Flats, where he is currently serving the Ottery, Ferness Estate and Lotus River areas. He considers his role as that of an ambassador for his department and the City as a whole by raising awareness about building processes and methods and uplifting residents in the poorer communities especially. Faizel enjoys being a part of successful projects that add value to the City's economy, and those that improve the lives of our residents. Seeing a building project through from the ground to completion brings him great satisfaction as well as meeting people from different walks of life and learning from their experiences.

Ayanda van Wyk, a Principal Building Inspector for the City in the Gordons Bay and surrounding areas has served various communities in the region such as Firlands, Gordon Heights, Gordons Bay Extension 12, Gordons Bay Village, Harbour Island, Mountainside, Mansfield, Temperance Town, Sweet Waters, Crystal Waters and the outlying farm areas in the area for the past 11 years. Ayanda is proud to be a black female building inspector in this very male dominated trade and sector and enjoys that she can interact with contractors, engineers and government authorities to address issues, provide guidance and enforce compliance, especially when needing to resolve disputes and challenges that arise during construction projects.

Nompumelelo Williams, has been working in her role as a Building Inspector for the past two and half years serving the Kuilsriver area including the Highbury; Sarepta; Mabille Park; Stellendale; Kalkfontein; Highbury Park; Gersham; Voelvlei; Danarand and Des Hampden suburbs. She takes pride in contributing to a healthy and safe built environment on a daily basis by conducting inspections in a manner that meets the City's objectives. Part of her role is to coordinate joint site inspections with fire services, health and mechanical personnel to issue clearance reports prior to issuing occupancy certificates to the developer/owner of the commercial property. She takes her roles and responsibilities to ensure the safety and compliance of construction projects by enforcing building regulations and standards very seriously as this protects the public from potential hazards in buildings.

'Earlier this month we welcomed eight new building inspectors who will now be serving the Khayelitsha; Kraaifontein; Athlone; Cape Town; Helderberg and Tygerberg planning district offices. This brings the total of City building inspectors across the metro to 84 inspectors. These individuals play an integral part in ensuring a safe built environment in Cape Town and we are celebrating the quality of work these inspectors conduct across the City and the manner in which they deal with all the property owners and role players within the building sector. These three inspectors have an admirable passion for the communities they serve and it is encouraging to hear how they sincerely want to educate the residents on safe building practices,' said the Deputy Mayor and the City's Mayoral Committee Member for Spatial Planning and Environment, Alderman Eddie Andrews

A typical day as a building inspector would be to respond to requests for construction inspections from property owners and contractors and attending site meetings on bigger building projects with various professionals representing the City. This involves lots of travelling to various sites and meeting different people from all walks of life.

The main function of a building inspector is to ensure compliance to an approved building plan and to ensure proper building methods are adhered to.

The City's building inspectors are also responsible for dealing with building complaints and building disputes between neighbours. Complaints of encroachments, where neighbours structures are overlapping onto adjoining neighbours causing damages is a common occurrence and has to be dealt with on a weekly basis. The building inspectors therefore need to be equipped with excellent diplomacy and negotiation skills to ensure amicable outcomes in these instances.

'In August 2023 the City's Development Department saw the best statistics for approvals on the online DAMS 2 online portal since implementation of the new system in March 2023 with a 98% achievement versus the same time last year – before the new system was implemented. This means that on some days there is 70+ building plans being approved across the City in one working day and naturally our building inspectors will be noticing an uptick in online site inspection bookings as building work commences on these newly approved development applications,' said Alderman Andrews

A City building inspector has high visibility in their respective areas and their responsibilities include:

Conducting compulsory inspections to check on the foundation; drainage and work completion in order to ensure safety and conformance to NBR Regulations ACT
Provide technical guidance and assistance to builders, architects and property owners regarding compliance with building regulation

Conducting regular site visits to inspect ongoing construction projects, verifying that they adhere to approved building plans and safety standards

Investigating complaints and unauthorised work

Following up on legal cases currently in Court for an outcome

Preparing occupancy certificates

Updating the City's online planning portal, DAMS on the status of sites inspected

Ensuring that notices are prepared and served in a right manner

Preparing affidavits in respect of all unauthorised building work

Property owners should register for the City's e-services via the following link https://www.capetown.gov.za/City-Connect/Register/eservices-and-municipal-accounts/Register-for-a-municipal-account to be able to make use of the DAMS online portal. Residents are welcome to e-mail the department on DAMS.System@capetown.gov.za should they have any queries relating to the electronic submission of building plans and land use applications.

The City's Development Application Management System (DAMS) online service allows for the submission of building plans and land use applications and makes the application process easier for developers and property owners.

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Published by:
City of Cape Town, Media Office