FOUR vagrants were arrested by Durban North SAPS in a cordon-and-search operation in La Lucia and Durban North on Tuesday morning. According to the station’s spokesman, Capt Raymond Deokaran, the operation was part of on an ongoing initiative.
The City recently adopted a ‘Nuisances and Behaviour in Public Places’ by-law that clamps down on vagrancy, with a maximum penalty of R40 000 for misdemeanours such as loitering and urinating in public.
“The idea is to frustrate them so that they stop coming back to the area. Most of them have permanent residence, but leave to beg and live in the bushes. We will process their fingerprints at the station and we will see if we can link them to any crimes in the area,” said Deokaran.
“The raid is part of an ongoing initiative to root out vagrants from the area. We also checked out the thickets around the La Lucia taxi rank and other areas but found no settlements. We have received complaints from residents in the area and though I cannot say all vagrants are criminals, we believe there is a criminal element using vagrancy in the area as a cloak,” he said.
