Dumping site cleared, vagrants evicted
Victory for residents as JMPD and Pikitup respond to complaints
Residents objected to the vagrants present on the corner of Hendrik Potgieter Road and van Staden Street, and following a series of complaints, Ward 97 councillor Jaco Engelbrecht contacted relevant City authorities.
According to complaints sent to Engelbrecht, vagrants were harassing the residents. It is also alleged that on Saturday 12 October, vagrants raped a domestic worker and took her employer’s keys. It is also alleged that the vagrants were armed with a 9mm pistol.
On Friday 18 October officials from the City of Joburg’s Citizen Relationship and Urban Management (Crum), together with JMPD and Pikitup, arrived at the site to clean it up and evict the vagrants.
Crum had visited the site prior to 18 October in order to assess the situation and determine what authorities needed to be contacted.
Phumi Mthimkulu, Crum Ward 97 inspector from the City of Joburg said that they, “noticed that there was illegal land invasion and dumping.” It also looked like a recycling project was being carried out.
JMPD and Pikitup were contacted after their initial inspection.
JMPD officials gave a verbal warning to the vagrants and instructed them to vacate the land. According to JMPD spokesperson Edna Mamonyane, JMPD officers couldn’t arrest the vagrants as there was no chargeable offence for the illegal invasion of land by homeless people.
Pikitup arrived with cleaning equipment, although they did not have the necessary equipment needed to remove plastic bottles and various other forms of litter. Building rubble dumped on the site was removed. Mthimkulu explained that JMPD would continue to monitor the place to make sure that vagrants don’t move back.
