By Bronwynne Jooste
Staff Reporter
The City of Cape Town has threatened to close the neglected police barracks in Kenilworth, despite it being owned by the National Department of Public Works.
The city is set to promulgate a by-law on Monday regulating problem buildings, and has warned that although the Parkhof flats are owned by the National Department of Public Works, it would have the power to take action on the building.
And Western Cape police have confirmed that 80 percent of the police members who live there are staying illegally and have been served with eviction notices.
At a public meeting on Monday night, chaired by the area's ward councillor, Owen Kinahan, people living close to the offending building raised concerns that it posed health and safety risks.
Kinahan confirmed that once the by-law had been promulgated, the council could shut the building down, regardless of who owned it.
But he stressed that this was a last resort as many families would be left homeless.
Angry residents of the area complained that the building was negatively affecting their property values. The children of the police members who lived there, they claimed, were "a law unto themselves" who "terrorised" neighbours.
Fazeelah Ibrahim, who lives opposite the block of flats, said teenagers often drank in her driveway. When she tried to reprimand them, they retaliated.
"They throw glass into my pool, they put beer bottles under my gate so it won't open. The problem is that parents are not instilling discipline in their children."
Michelle Lakey, another resident, said it seemed the children believed they were above the law.
"They openly drink in the street and when you tell them you are going to phone the police, they tell you 'Go ahead, phone the police, that's my dad'. They are not afraid of the police at all."
When the Cape Argus visited the flats yesterday, there was no access control. Several teenagers and unsupervised younger children were outside the premises, some standing in the street, others leaning out of broken windows.
A stench of urine hung in the air on one floor. Graffiti, mostly expletives, marked most of the walls.
It is unclear how many people live in the seven-storey block. One Parkhof resident at last night's meeting said up to 15 people lived in some of the three-bedroom units.
Kinahan said that when he last visited the flats with health and fire inspectors, children were playing in raw sewage that had started flowing into the entrance of the complex.
"These people live in such conditions, and we expect them to serve and put their lives on the line. It's a disgrace," he said.
Residents of Parkhof who were at Monday night's meeting refused to be named, but one said it was unfair that they should answer for the issues at the block.
Kinahan said he had invited Community Safety MEC Lennit Max and provincial police commissioner Mzwandile Petros to the meeting. Max had declined to attend while Petros's office had not responded.
Provincial police spokesperson Billy Jones said a representative of Petros's office had planned to attend but had been informed that the meeting had been postponed.
Jones said 80 percent of the tenants were living there illegally.
A multimillion-rand Parkhof upgrade was scheduled for November, he said. This would be planned and funded by the Department of Public Works.
Parkhof residents said they had been offered no alternative accommodation during the upgrade.