The George Lea Park debacle continues. However, this time, the saga appears to be reaching a dramatic end, as plans have been put in place to beautify and revamp the area.
The issue involves the many displaced persons who live at the park. Several of these people are waste collectors who sort through their takings in the park.
The Sandton Sports Club has adopted this piece of land and is at the forefront of future plans for the park. The fencing around the perimeter of the park is in the process of being removed by the club.
Len Jordan, chairperson of the sports club, said he aims to completely redo the George Lea Park area. “We want to start a junior soccer club and we need to grow and improve security; we want to create an enjoyable and safe community sports club for our Sandton residents,” he said.
“The sports club is in the process of taking down the current fence and the council will use this fence elsewhere. We will replace this with a nice new ClearVu fence, which will be up by the end of September,” he added.
Jordan explained that once the fencing has been erected, the displaced people who live on this piece of land will be evicted. “JMPD and Pikitup will get involved with this eviction and clean-up and we aim to secure and revamp the entire area. All the litter needs to be cleared,” he said.
Jordan admitted he feels very sorry for the displaced people but stressed that it is inhumane to allow people to live in such unhygienic conditions.
He added that the sports club has suffered as a result of the smoke created by the George Lea dwellers’ fires. “In the mornings, we cannot conduct any sports or training sessions, as there is so much smoke and we’ve had break-ins and security issues. Such a small sports club cannot financially deal with this,” explained Jordan.
Judith Briggs, chairperson of the Rosebank Homeless Association elaborated on the issue of evicting the George Lea Park dwellers. “These displaced persons will never disappear and will just move onto other land. They are human beings and need somewhere to sleep and rest their heads,” she said. She highlighted that homeless people need to be dealt with in a humane manner, and in the presence of social workers who are equipped to deal with issues of this nature.
“There are simply not enough places for these people to go to, we have a serious lack of homeless shelters,” Briggs concluded.
