Lower Illovo residents are up in arms over plans by eThekwini Municipality, Transnet, Metro Police and SAPS to relocate drug addicts and vagrants to the area.
Vagrants, drug addicts and drug dealers are said to use the railway tracks between Berea and Dalbridge train stations as a base to rob people who use the bridge.
The relocation solution was proposed at a meeting between stakeholders to clamp down on spiralling crime in the city.
In a petition to the municipality that has already garnered over 500 signatures, residents said relocating the addicts and vagrants will not solve the problem.
Residents believe drug addicts may resort to crime in the area to fund their habits, and that Lower Illovo has limited resources and an already overworked SAPS that does not have the capacity to cope with additional crime.
They said people don’t take kindly to relocation as history has shown and the addicts and vagrants will eventually find their way back to Durban. The exercise would be another waste of ratepayers’ money.
Residents believe that if addicts are moved, their suppliers would follow, exposing neighbourhood children to drugs.
Residents said they do not support the proposal and they had not been consulted.
They called on eThekwini city manager, Sibusiso Sithole and stakeholders to rather help the addicts and solve the problem in Durban and not relocate them to their community.
“Crime and safety is an ongoing concern for us,” said the spokesman for the 40-odd houses in the vicinity of Draeger Crescent, Bryan Baxter.
“This relocation will be bad for our community. We are surrounded by sugarcane and this leaves us exposed to potential crime from the street, as well as the sugarcane.
Our domestic workers have to walk these streets and they are already frequently mugged. Nobody in this area is happy about this development.”
One resident said relocating these addicts would not benefit themselves nor the community.
Many questioned the motive for moving the problem to a quiet neighbourhood.
Others said their safety and protecting their children is more important than having these individuals in a residential area.
One pensioner said, “We are a community consisting of mostly pensioners and we would be vulnerable targets if the relocation takes place”.
Others expressed concern for the safety of young children walking to and from a local primary school, and the close proximity of a children’s home.
“The Sakhithemba halfway facility that has been earmarked for housing the relocated people is a mess. It will costs lots of money to restore and it is inadequate for their needs,” said Baxter.
“The facility is not a new addition to the area, but an existing facility that served the city well, even prior to the 2010 World Cup when ‘undesirables’ were removed off Durban streets and relocated to Lower Illovo without the knowledge of local residents,” said ward 97 councillor, Andre Beetge.
“During a site visit at the end of 2013, we realised that the YMCA, which held a usage lease from council into 2014, had vacated the premises days before and it was already in the process of being plundered.
Upon our recommendation, security was deployed and in January 2014, A Center That Serves (ACTS) received permission from the YMCA to operate from the premises. Privately-funded renovations resulted in the first wellness clinic for the local community being opened at the beginning of April.”
School uniforms were also manufactured on the premises to supply the surrounding community.
“Although there was a vision to establish a youth resource centre with a library, pre-school and church to serve the Lower Illovo and Inkwali areas, the municipality was reluctant to extend the lease when the YMCA contract term drew to an end in the same year,” said Cllr Beetge.
Screenshot taken from Google Maps:
“Despite our efforts to secure a new lease for ACTS, the city remained adamant Sakhithemba continued to be operated as a halfway house by the Safer Cities department for addicts.
The challenge was, and has remained, that there has never been any funding allocated towards such a project.
The city’s failure to again properly secure the premises when ACTS vacated resulted in renewed plundering to the point where any hope of re-establishing such a project would require considerable investment and renovation. There is no provision made in the city’s 2016/17 draft budget for this.
Sadly the establishment remains empty and partially in ruins as a reminder of what could have been a haven, opportunity and activity centre for the youth,” said Cllr Beetge.
The petition can be found on the Facebook page ‘Prevent relocation of drug addicts and vagrants’ or click here: https://www.ipetitions.com/petition/prevent-the-relocation-of-drug-addicts-vagrants
