Plans to move drug addicts and vagrants who congregate under the Anton Lembede Street bridge in Durban and commit crime in the area to Lower Illovo have been revived by authorities, in a bid to clamp down on the spiralling crime rate in the city.
Media reports quoted Transnet Freight Rail’s spokesman, Clement Maphaba, who said this solution was the outcome of a meeting between Transnet, eThekwini Municipality, Metro Police and SAPS.
He said stakeholders were investigating the possibility of moving the vagrants to Illovo and they are awaiting budget approval before they confirm the relocation.
Scores of vagrants, drug addicts and drug dealers use the railway tracks between Berea and Dalbridge train stations as a base to rob people who use the bridge.
Transnet Freight Rail was forced to remove security from the bridge by Umbilo SAPS after a recent shooting incident, but is being blamed by police for not removing the vagrants from under the bridge.
Ward 97 councillor, Andre Beetge said his office was inundated with enquiries following news of the story on social media on Tuesday, 23 February.
“While none of the suggested stakeholders were able to confirm recent progress, our investigation revealed that dating back to 2013/14, in seeking a possible resolution for this ongoing problem, relocation was one of the topics discussed between Transnet, Metro Police, SAPS, Safer Cities programme, the department of social development and Dennis Hurley Centre,” said Cllr Beetge.
“The planning also includes bi-weekly operations, wherein people are not only apprehend and charged, but social challenges such as reunification with families, drug and alcohol rehabilitation and medical care is identified and addressed.
One of the 2013/4 recommendations included relocating screened individuals to council’s Sakhithemba half-way facility in Lower Illovo, which at the time was under lease to YMCA. At the time our office immediately questioned the viability and practical implementation of such a recommendation, based upon various factors which included that there was no budgetary allocation. We recommended that it rather be leased to a local NPO for local upliftment projects when the YMCA contract drew to an end in 2014.
We also warned against further vandalism of the facility, because of council’s absence to properly secure the asset at cost to the ratepayer.
Both our plight and warnings were, however, ignored – to the point where it would require substantial investment from the city and other stakeholders to renovate and render the vandalised facility even remotely in acceptable condition to facilitate any same or similar project as alluded by to Mr Maphaba.”
The Sun attempted to contact Transnet’s Clement Maphaba for comment, but he was unavailable at the time of going to print.
