A plot owned by the City of Johannesburg in Craighall has become a dumping site and a home to vagrants who allegedly use it as an illegal recyclables sorting area.
The unkempt land known as stand 221 has items such as empty cardboard boxes, beer bottles, building material and stacks of packaging polystyrene containers strewn close to the back exit of Music Connection, a musical instrument retail shop on Jan Smuts Avenue.
According to the store manager, Simon Mahlangu, the instruments supplier is not responsible for the waste which has evidently piled up over a period of time.
“We have guys who come to our store to collect cardboard boxes every week for recycling purposes,” explained the manager.
“But we don’t monitor when and how.”
He admitted that, as staff, they were aware of at least one person who was living on the land and that he had approached the City numerous times to report the problems faced. “We said ‘sell us the land and we will buy the half close to us and maybe turn it into an additional parking space’,” said Mahlangu.
“Why is the City not selling or developing this land. If it has been sold, why hasn’t the owner been here to maintain it?”
According to the City, the 5 140m² land, adjacent to Music Connection, was subdivided into two portions namely Business 1 and Residential 3. The residential portion was advertised and placed on public tender for sale and awarded to the successful bidder, Jade Africa, and this property is in the process of being registered at the deeds office.
“The reason for the delay in the development is due to the condition of sale which required that the property in the first instance be subdivided. This process may take between 12 to 24 months to be completed,” responded Francis Sardianos, City of Johannesburg Property Company client business operation executive manager.
Sardianos said the second portion was subdivided and will be advertised and placed on public tender by the end of November.
“In terms of the Supply Chain Management Policy for Land and the Municipal Finance Management Act, all City-owned properties must be placed on public tender for all interested parties to have an opportunity to participate should they be interested.”
The Joburg Property Company said they will attend to the cleaning of the property and the removal of the vagrants with the assistance of Metro police. This will commence later this month.
