Metro Police, Linden Police, the Department of Health and Safety and Ward 98 Councillor Laurette van Zijl moved in on illegal residents on the corner of Beatrice and Earl roads, Windsor East on 11 November.
This was done due to several complaints from van Zijl about health issues at the Windsor East building.
The cleanup operation was, however, botched after Metro Police announced that they cannot remove any of the rubbish that was found on the property, as it belonged to the residents.
They did, however, remove the illegal street vendors outside the property.
The standard fine for trading without a licence is R500, which the Metro Police had issued to several of the residents and seized the belongings of the street vendors. These can only be returned to their owners once the fine has been paid.
“The rubbish on the property was the Department of Health and Safety’s problem,” said van Zijl.
She said the building was cleaned up by the Metro Police the previous year, but has since attracted new residents.
“The main problem at the building is health issues, after a drain had blocked and sewage rose to knee height. The cost to fix the drain was estimated at about R140 000,” said van Zijl.
Other than health issues, the building has six garages which were being illegally rented out to residents to operate their unregistered businesses.
Some of them were privately owned, while others were seized from different banks and sold on auction only to be rented out illegally again, she said.
Illegal squatters live behind the building and the apartments inside are woefully overpopulated.
The owner of the building has not been living on the property itself.
Most of the residents were too afraid to divulge any information about either their fellow residents or who they were paying their R1 000 rent to. The councillor said she aims to clean up the remaining buildings in Windsor, all the illegal street vendors who aid the drug problem in the suburb as well as the extremely large amount of unpaid water and electricity bills which spread to millions of rands.
