JOHANNESBURG SOUTH – Rosie Wallace (50) and her neighbours are terrified by an abandoned house used as a hideout by Turffontein criminals in Great Britain Street.
This is the same house that was ‘hijacked’ by sex workers and drug dealers before it was burnt down by an angry customer who had been betrayed by one of the prostitutes back in 2012.
The building is now literally just a few walls standing as many of the bricks were stolen by people piece by piece.
It now creates an unbearable problem, because some people use the alley behind it to dump rubbish in the yard.
In fact, there is still visible soot in the pool, proving Rosie’s statement that, at night, some criminals use the pool to burn cables to remove the wires.
The smell near the pool is unbearable and causes Rosie and her family a lot of stress as it can be smelled from their yard next door.
“The reason I want something done here is because criminals try to jump over our walls. You hear them talk at night and they hide behind these walls.
“It is not safe to walk past this house in the early hours of the morning, because some criminals sometimes hide behind these walls and go out to snatch women’s handbags,” she said.
ANC Ward 124 Councillor Sidney Radebe explained: “There are these kinds of houses here in Turffontein and it not easy to just demolish them as they belong to a bank or persons who abandoned them.
“There are procedures that the city has to follow before they could even consider a decision like that, because it is private property.
According to Peter van Vuuren from Region F Citizen Relationship Management, this is the official complaint about the house, but their Legal and Special Investigation Department will be investigating the complaint.
He added that things like these take time while the department must first track down the owner of the house and find a platform to communicate with him or her.
Peter also encourages people to make official reports about similar houses at the People’s Centres or dial 011 080 9290.
