Rosebank police monitor local vagrants

After persistent complaints, regarding occasional aggression and intimidation by vagrants in the area, from local businesses and residents to Rosebank police, the police decided to target the corner of Bolton and Oxford Roads in Rosebank, a known hot-spot, and clear the vicinity of vagrants.

However, on the day of the intended operation the particular group of vagrants were not seen lingering in the area.

Rosebank police noted that the difficulty of pinning down vagrants who pose a nuisance to the community is that they are sporadic in areas they linger.

Police spokesperson Sergeant Bongani Mdletshe took the Rosebank Killarney Gazette on a ride along to survey several street corners where vagrants were known to frequent.

Mdletshe noted that in the early morning of 13 February, the police had cleared a house located in Parkwood on Jan Smuts Avenue that had been illegally occupied by over 15 vagrants.

The property is owned by a large corporate entity who left the premises unoccupied. As a result, vagrants gradually moved into the empty house and began to strip the property of the metal on the window frames.

“They are targeting empty houses. When we went into [the illegally-occupied house] the stench was unbelievable,” said Mdletshe.

“Some vagrants are potential criminals,” he added, and indicated several instances where vagrants where arrested on the possession of drugs.

Mdletshe further added that some ‘regulars’ in the area have served their prison sentences and were back on the streets begging, however despite their previous arrests, these individuals have not been implicated in any further criminal offences.

Several street corners known to be occasionally occupied by vagrants include the corners of Jan Smuts Avenue and Bolton Road, Jan Smuts and Seventh Avenues, Jan Smuts and Jellicoe Avenues, Bompas and Christopherson Road, Oxford Road and Baker Street, Oxford and Bolton roads.

Have you been harassed by vagrants at one of the street corners?

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