Vagrants turn park into home

The residents and the security in the Fairland area have been frustrated by the vagrants living in the Smit Street Park.

Beagle Watch Armed Response has been in talks with City Parks to adopt the park. This would entail the security company keeping the park clean at all times. They are willing to put in equipment for the children to have physical exercise and they are also willing to install some CCTV cameras to have an eye on the park for safety at all times.

Beagle Watch customer relations officer Anne Wood said that City Parks had already agreed to have Beagle Watch adopt the park and that they have been trying to set up a meeting with JMPD to allow them to enforce bylaws when it comes to removing vagrants.

“The vagrants live here, they cook and sleep here,” said Wood. The security company has had incidents with a robbery at Spar across the road from the park where the suspects ran into the park and mingled with the vagrants. “This is counterproductive because we cannot tell who is who and therefore we cannot make any arrests,” she said.

Wood said that criminals are using the park as an opportunity for their illegal acts as they had recovered live ammunition in the park last year. “All we are requesting is for the JMPD to make our security guards peace officers for the park and we have been unsuccessful in setting up a meeting with them,” said Wood.

A vagrant that lives at the park, Arnold Ndlovu (48) said that he had been living at the park for 30 years to date. He said that there are about 50 to 60 vagrants that live in the park. “We have small jobs during the day and we all come back here to sleep at night,” said Ndlovu.

Ndlovu and some other vagrants were found cooking lunch in the park using old tins. “We do not have a problem with moving from here but where must we go,” he said. He said that a nearby church provides them with a bath three times a week, food, soap and some blankets. Ndlovu said that most of the vagrants at the park are from Limpopo, Mozambique and Zimbabwe and they work during the day to send money back to their families.

JMPD spokesperson Superintendent Edna Mamonyane said that Beagle Watch will have to go through the Chief of Police to attain permission for peace officers. “There are channels they will need to go through starting with the chief of police,” she said. Supt Mamonyane said that it is not up to the JMPD to make people peace officers and that the matter will have to go to the Mayor as well. “The JMPD is only liable for training peace officers,” she concluded.

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