Golf Club Terrace Reservoir not a homeless shelter

A family  from Constantia Kloof is fed up with having vagrants for neighbours.

“There are at present about five men enjoying the open veld as their home. They do their ablutions in the veld, and cook and sleep there,” said Hanneleen Roos, when discussing the open piece of land surrounding the water reservoir next to her home on Golf Club Terrace Road with Councillor Carl Mann.

These vagrants are apparently “tortoise men” (as dubbed by a Northsider reader recently) that collect recycling material by day, and use the small veld as their home by night. They have been frequenting the veld for months and thus far residents, governing officials and JMPD are clueless as to what to do about the situation, as responsibility for the veld continues to shift from authority to authority.

“The police department unfortunately are not able to arrest or detain these people due to the fact that most of them are without documentation and there is no law that allows the police force to arrest them,” stated Mann. “I have raised the issue with Rand Water as they have a water tower there but they are responsible for the ground fenced off around the tower only. The rest of the responsibility falls on City Parks Patrols.”

Just around the corner from the reservoir lies Reinnette Park, which is beautifully maintained by City Parks on a regular basis. Neatly mowed lawns roll down to a clean brook, and there are no vagrants or rubbish in sight. A stark contrast to the veld around the reservoir on Golf Club Terrace.

So the questions remain, is it up to the governing bodies to sort out the issue, or should the community step in with the support of JMPD? But then, where do the vagrants go from there? And what if they return?

“Until the governing party is changed, we are going to continue to experience this lack of service delivery,” Mann concluded.