Africa-Press – South-Africa. People were seen darting in all directions early this morning (Friday 28 October) when officers forming part of a multi-agency integrated operation cracked down on slum buildings in Ebor Road in Wynberg.
With the Main Road temporarily closed off, officers from the City of Cape Town’s Metro Police, Law Enforcement and Traffic Services, along with the South African Police Service’s Anti-Gang Unit and the Department of Home Affairs, surrounded the buildings at number 4 and 6 Ebor Road, Wynberg.
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.
These properties 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 Emile Langenhoven, councillor for Ward 62, 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.
On Friday, officials from the City’s Electricity Department recorded and removed the illegal electricity and water connections.
According to Smith, around 170 undocumented foreign nationals were detained.
He said they are currently being processed by the Department of Home Affairs at the Wynberg Police Station.
He adds that the Metro Police K9 unit made positive detections for drugs “with several suspects being arrested”.
Meanwhile, at a public safety meeting held at Wynberg Civic Centre on Wednesday 26 October, JP Smith told the residents in attendance that although the City had started to take action against the owner of Ebor Road problem buildings, the owner, Uli Heydt, had sued for peace and went into debt management, requiring the City “to lay off him”.
However, Smith said Heydt 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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