Sundowner school responds to crime by levelling land
SUNDOWNER – School responds to crime by levelling land.
Prevailing crime caused by vagrants on the corner of Beyers Naudé Drive and Northumberland Avenue, Sundowner, proved too much for Curro Aurora to bear, and the school has retaliated.
Three of these vagrants were also arrested by Honeydew police this week in connection with a house robbery.
“Curro recently bought land on the [eastern side of the] corner of Northumberland [Avenue] and Beyers Naudé [Drive],” said Executive Head of Curro Aurora Johann Ueckermann.
“As soon as registration is complete, we will proceed to fence off the infamous piece of property hosting vagrants. It is ear-marked for building projects.”
He claimed that the reason for the development was to force the vagrants to leave, and thus reduce crime in the area.
“These guys once tried to steal wiring from inside the school. Once a resident was shot and killed. The whole of Sundowner will benefit [by the development].”
Honeydew police’s Warrant Officer Gabriel Nonyane said three vagrants, who live on the corner, were arrested this week for a house- robbery, and that muggings occur on that corner.
“We tried to move [the vagrants], but as long as the area is overgrown, it is difficult,” he said.
“Muggings occur because people walk through the area to go to work. I check that area every day, and we told people to stop walking through there, but they don’t listen.”
He appealed to residents not to give vagrants clothes and blankets, because it encouraged them to stay and perpetuate crime in the area.
A Trojan Security guard, who only gave his first name as Innocent, claimed that “people use the bush to rob women” on the corner, and he gives pedestrians lifts in his car, so they can avoid the perilous walk.
Ueckermann claimed that once erected, the surrounding fence will be 3m high, and the school is negotiating with Johannesburg Roads Agency for permission to cut grass on a another piece of land the entity owns on the corner.
Ward 114 councillor Maureen Schneeman did not respond by the time of publishing.
