Shocking green belt crime stats
Vagrants inhabit nearly every green belt and open area from Ruimsig to Weltevreden Park. Around 60% of the local crime rate is attributed to them.
Large swathes of green belt meander their way through the Northside providing tranquil and natural scenes which lend a peaceful air to local neighbourhoods. But that is only on the surface. Look a little deeper and you realise that the green belts provide shelter for more than just beautiful birds and cute critters. It is also home to the criminal element.
According to BCI Security’s operations manager Lionell Gaffney, green belt areas throughout the Northside region present a thorn in the side of residents and security companies. Vagrants have made themselves at home in nearly every natural area from Weltevreden Park in the east to Ruimsig in the west, and the effect that this has on local crime rates is significant.
Gaffney estimates that up to 60% of the crime in areas bordering on green belts, emanates from the green belts. The vast majority of the crime is not serious, but some are.
The green belts are inhabited by vagrants who use these areas as bases for their illegal recycling operations. Others live here because they beg at traffic lights, or get employed from time to time in residential gardens and by local businesses as day workers.
“The green belts are of great concern to us as a local security company,” he said. “The illegal activities that go on in these areas contribute to crime in local communities. This means we have to deploy additional staff to try and limit the effect this has on the communities we are appointed to protect.”
• Also read: Vagrancy fuels crime in Northside
A recent clean-up operation initiated by residents’ associations revealed several illegal dwellings in the green belt spanning between the traffic circle at Shearwater Road and Van Staden Road bordering on Ruimsig. This green belt also borders on the busy Hendrik Potgieter Road.
It is a relatively small area, but it seems to house many people. According to some of the illegal occupiers interviewed by the Northsider, only about 10 people live here, but the evidence suggests otherwise.
Makeshift shacks are well hidden among the trees and reeds that permeate this area, with signs of illegal recycling everywhere around. A small cluster of roughly five shacks of varying sizes exposes some people who appear unable to speak or understand English.
“We are informed they are from Mozambique, living and working in the green belt as recyclers.”
• Also read: We’ll do it ourselves – WRA
More shacks are barely visible through the dense brush, but venturing too deep off the path and out of sight of the road may be dangerous. There is no way of accurately telling how many people inhabit this small stretch of land, but it is too many.
It is also proving nearly impossible to convince vagrants to move, and one of the biggest problems residents’ associations and security companies face, is the fact that, legally, they have no jurisdiction in terms of the removal of illegal people or structures within the green belts, or anywhere else.
“Luckily the vagrants tend to move on when we cut away the brush around their dwellings and clean up the rubbish – including their collected recycling materials,” said WRAP Residents’ Association chairperson Martin van der Westhuizen.
“We will continue to clean our local green belts and natural areas. This will expose these illegal activities and hopefully motivate the vagrants to move on from our neighbourhoods.”
