Some residents of Sunninghill are having problems with job seekers who stand outside the Builders Warehouse gate.
A resident of nearby Chianti Lifestyle Estate who wished to remain anonymous confronted a job seeker who had kicked a bottle into the complex’s outside garden. He alleged that the job-seeker told him to shut up and go back to Europe.
“I have just been told to leave this country by all the job-seekers outside Chianti Lifestyle Estate,” he said in a note addressed to the local councillor Annette Deppe. “They said that I am from Europe and I must leave, I told them that [although] I am white, [it] still makes me an African.
“Please can you report this to someone who can come and sort this out? We have just spent R50k to upgrade the front area to stop these guys from using our garden as a toilet area. I witnessed a guy kicking a plastic bottle into the garden so I told him to pick it up and put it back into the bin – did that open up this racist insult to me?”
Deppe said such occasional harassment of residents by these job seekers had been going on since Builders Warehouse moved into the area.
“I had a meeting with Builders Warehouse and it seems they also have no means of getting this problem under control. These job seekers are there because they are providing a service to Builders Warehouse customers. This issue gets brought up at every SEC Crime Forum meeting and at every Joburg 10 Plus meeting,” said Deppe.
She complained that responsible authorities have not yet taken action, adding that there were not even any contingency plans from Urban Management at Region A.
“The residents have the direct numbers for the [Metro police] who are the responsible body to bring about law and order. Bylaws are being broken every day and [Metro police] just look the other way unless you stay on their case,” said Deppe.
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