Africa-Press – South-Africa. A slum building in Wynberg was ravaged by fire this weekend – a mere two days after a multi-agency crackdown operation.
Jermaine Carelse, spokesperson for City of Cape Town Fire and Rescue Service, says they received a call at 05:17 on Sunday 30 October of a fire at 263 Main Road.
“Fire crews from Wynberg, Constantia and Milnerton, together with two fire engines and a rescue vehicle, were dispatched to the scene. The fire was extinguished at 06:50. There was substantial damage to the ground floor housing the business occupancy. The cause of the fire is unknown,” says Carelse.
While no one was injured in the blaze, Emile Langenhoven, councillor for Ward 62, says with conditions at the building being what they are, it is only a matter of time before someone is hurt or worse.
“I put the responsibility fully on (the owner). We have received very little cooperation from the owner of the building. He has been collecting rates of approximately R3 000 from each of the people living there and it seems he wants to continue doing so even in the condition that those buildings are now.”
On Friday 28 October, officers from the City of Cape Town’s Metro Police, Law Enforcement and Traffic Services, along with the South African Police Services Anti-Gang Unit and the Department of Home Affairs, surrounded the slum buildings in Ebor Road and Main Road.
As the operations commenced at 04:00, several suspects tried to escape by jumping over the closely separated roof structures but to no avail.
JP Smith, the City’s Mayco member for safety and security, says drone technology was used to track them down.
“All persons were apprehended. One person fell from a roof structure while trying to escape and required medical attention,” says Smith.
During the operation, around 170 undocumented foreign nationals were detained and later processed by the Department of Home Affairs at the Wynberg Police Station.
Officials from the City’s Electricity Department recorded and removed illegal electricity and water connections and the Metro Police K9 unit made positive detections for drugs “with several suspects being arrested”.
Langenhoven claims the owner has taken no steps to secure his building to prevent reoccupation of his property after Friday’s operation.
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“And he doesn’t seem to have any motivation to do so at all. I appeal to him to start taking action. Ultimately, there will be a death in that building if things continue the way they are.”
The properties at number 4 and 6 Ebor Road, and 263 Main Road Wynberg were registered as problem buildings with the City as far back as 2013.
Consisting of sub-divided rooms which in turn are sub-rented, the buildings have become an infamous symbol of the urban decay that has plagued Wynberg these past few years.
In a previous interview with Langenhoven, he described the atrocious conditions he witnessed during a site visit in June this year.
He said makeshift partitions created dark, airless rooms that made breathing difficult and visibility nearly impossible without a torch while electrical wiring hung loosely all over.
Meanwhile, at a public safety meeting held at Wynberg Civic Centre on Wednesday 26 October, Smith told the residents in attendance that although the City had started to take action against the property owner who had sued for peace and went into debt management, requiring the City “to lay off him”.
However, Smith said the owner had reneged on the commitments and that the City would be “dragging him off to court to prosecute him to the maximum extent” they can and to recover the vast amount of debt owed by him to the City.
“We are trying to seize his properties, all of his and his neighbour’s properties. We are going for sale and execution so that we can seize these properties and try and put them back on the market and see if somebody else can take and develop them into what Wynberg should be which is well-located, appropriate housing,” said Smith.
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