ACTION needs to be taken by the municipality to fence the area around the substation in Alan Paton Road, Umbilo, says ward 33 councillor, Mmabatho Tembe.
This comes after a recent article in Berea Mail, where residents Katherine Kruger and Dino Constantinou complained of the state of the area around the substation and the park in Dunkirk Road.
Homeless people sleep in the park, use the park and substation as a toilet, they inject themselves in broad daylight and they dump rubbish in the park.
When visiting the area this month, Mzansi Fire and Security officer, Leon Madlala stopped Berea Mail and Councillor Tembe, to say he had just chased away drug users from the substation. He said he had noticed one of the doors on the substation had been broken and was hanging from its hinges earlier this month.
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“I reported this to the Umbilo Business Forum, who escalated it, however it was too late, and the door was stolen. It is shocking,” he said.
Kruger said she called Madlala on a regular basis, and that with the doors missing on the substation, drug users and prostitutes had been utilising the rooms and they were also being used as a toilet. She said the door on the substation had been fixed before, however two days later it had been broken by vagrants.
Tembe said the state of the park and substation had been an ongoing problem for many years.
She had called on the municipality earlier in the month to clean up the area, and finally last week a park clean-up and deep clean had been undertaken. However, Tembe said despite this and previous clean-ups, more needed to be done.
“This is a hub for drugs and prostitution and the area around the substation is constantly filthy. I have requested the head of the Electricity Department look into fencing in and painting the substation. Councillors in ward 33 have been dealing with this for years with no resolution, it has just gotten progressively worse, it is absolutely ridiculous and a permanent solution is needed,” she said.
No response to requests for comment had been received from the municipality at time of going to print.
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