‘We don’t have a dam substance problem’ – police

The Sophiatown Police Station has come out saying that they have not been experiencing any substance problems at the Westdene Dam Park.

This comes after the Northcliff Melville Times did a site visit with the Westdene-Sophiatown Residents’ Association chairperson, Dauw Steyn and found drug paraphernalia and beer bottles near the children’s play area.

The site visit was conducted on 19 January and packets with dagga seeds, empty packets suspected to have had drugs in them as well as beer bottles were found.

While dagga is in the process of possibly completely being legalised in South Africa, having it on your person or using it outside your home is still illegal.

With regard to the beer bottles, they were found under a tree near the play area, which seems like littering, however, there is no alcohol allowed to be brought into or consumed inside the Westdene Dam Park premises.

It is also illegal to bring weapons such as firearms and knives onto the premises.

The Northcliff Melville Times spoke to Sophiatown Police Station spokesperson, TJ de Bruyn who said despite the finds, police have generally not had a problem with substance abuse at the dam.

De Bruyn took this a step further and said he couldn’t remember the last time there was any sort of criminal incident at the dam that was reported to the police.

“I can’t really say there’s a problem. We used to find children’s school cases, which children were bunking school and going to the dam but there have not been drug or alcohol-related problems – no,” he explained.

Steyn seconded De Bruyn’s statement on it being a long time since criminal activities took place at the dam.

When asked if anyone was recently robbed or had something stolen at the dam, Steyn said he has heard nothing of the sort since the upgrade of the park.

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