According to Maddie Smythe, a bakkie arrived with three assistants who gathered the chopped wood and drove off.
“Huge logs that people sit on are going missing,” said Smythe.
She said she walked her dog everyday at Earnest Ullman and had noticed an elderly man visiting the park during winter collecting wood alongside the river.
“I have seen a black Ford Bantam bakkie three times with a full load of wood,” said Elias Raphulu who runs the Run/Walk for Life programme there.”
Chairperson of Friends of Earnest Ullman Recreation Centre Jenny Rahme said the City of Joburg were unaware of the activities and had not granted them permission to take the wood. There is a large sign indicating the boundaries of Earnest Ullman and people of the park need to ask permission to take wood.
“I am unaware of the activity. The policy is that anything happening in the centre and on the grounds needs permission from the office,” said Rahme.
Security on the property have no power or influence in the park and will not enforce the law for people breaking it.
“It is not a problem for wood to be collected if stretched out in the park, we just need a heads up,” said Rahme on behalf of City of Joburg.
It is suspected that maintenance workers from a nearby hotel were taking the wood, but this was vehemently denied by the management of the hotel.
