Benoni Plaza turned dump pose health hazard

Following reports that the Benoni Plaza is in a sorry state, the City Times visited the area with the Benoni police on June 20.

We found the plaza is indeed home to lots of litter, drug addicts and vagrants.

While we are aware the community has done some clean-ups in the area, it is a drop in the ocean compared to the enormity of the squalor at the plaza, to which the Ekurhuleni metro is seemingly turning a blind eye.

On Youth Day (June 16), the Children’s Hope Foundation cleaned up the plaza as a way of planting a seed with the youth about the importance of taking care of our city.

Sally Comins of the foundation said they filled about 200 bags with rubbish that day.

“Unfortunately, it was not nearly enough although we did make a difference.

“It would be great to see more clean-ups done in the area to restore Benoni back to its former glory.”

Comins added that they hope to see the Ekurhuleni metro continue on from where the community has started.

Business

Businesses in the area spoke to the City Times about trading at the plaza.

Amelia Amigo, owner of Billamelia Trading Enterprise, which has been situated at the Benoni Plaza for 19 years, said her business is suffering as customers are afraid of coming to the plaza, whether it’s day or night.

“Nineteen years ago the plaza was a clean, colourful and a safe place, but now all of that has faded away.

“We are always pleading to the metro to do something about all the abandoned buildings as they are now used by drug addicts and vagrants.”

Amigo said she still operates her business because she has nowhere else to go and needs to put food on the table for her family.

“All we want is for the municipality to clean the plaza up, repaint it and maybe destroy all the abandoned buildings.”

Vagrants

Sanele Skhosana (26) and Thulani Mavimbela (27) have been living at the plaza for five years.

They both said their circumstances at home led them to become homeless.

Skhosana said when his father died in 2013 their home was repossessed and he had to find a place to stay.

“I don’t like living like this, I would love to go back to school and learn welding skills so I can find a job one day.

“It is not safe to sleep here because the other vagrants steal our blankets and clothes. It really gets cold at night and we have to sleep under thin curtains or whatever else we can find.”

The City Times also visited the taxi rank at Lakeside Mall, the Customer Care Centre offices and the library.

Victoria Vuma, who is a vendor at the taxi rank on Voortrekker Street, said due to the high rate of unemployment she saw a business opportunity and decided to sell food at the rank.

“However, the conditions at the rank are not very hygienic.

“We need the metro to have regular clean-ups and possibly build us shelters so we can cook in a cleaner space,” said Vuma.

Plan

In February 2017, the Ekurhuleni City Planning Department and representatives from Iyer Planning Urban Design Architecture shared their plans with the public for an Urban Design Precinct that would change the Benoni CBD and its surrounds.

It was said that the precinct is part of a 25-year plan the metro intends to implement.

Areas such as the Benoni Plaza, the Customer Care Centre, municipal offices and the taxi rank in Voortrekker Street will take priority in phase one of the re-development, which is set to begin in 2019.

Phase one of the development will be done in the first five years of the 25-year plan. The City Times is awaiting comment from the metro on the state of the plaza and other areas of the CBD.

Captain Nomsa Sekele, spokesperson for the Benoni SAPS, who accompanied the City Times to the plaza, said officers will increase visibility at the plaza to help create better security and safety in the area.

Also read: Plaza gets some TLC on Youth Day

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