Cape Town - Police have denied allegations that officers failed to intervene in housing clashes at Communicare’s Brooklyn property, labelling them as baseless and unfair.
Social housing institution Communicare said there had been “violence, attacks on tenants, beating up of security guards and the breaking into (of) vacant units”. After three weeks, police and the City had not intervened.
“There has been no meaningful intervention from the SAPS, except the token visits to the complex when violence erupts,” Communicaree said.
“They have made no arrests, nobody was prevented from breaking into units, nobody was removed from site despite the obvious breaking of the law.
“We have 90 families of our legal tenants who continue to feel under siege and are terrified. They are constantly being harassed by the trespassers. Some units have been broken into while tenants were in their homes. Some tenants have taken it upon themselves to guard the vacant units.
“Tension is running high at the moment and Communicare fears what might happen next.”
More than 20 units are occupied by the “building hijackers”, it said.
“Violence broke out again on
Wednesday, 24 March. An unruly group gathered and demanded a meeting with Communicare. By 10pm, security guards had to resort to pepper spray and stun grenades to disperse the unruly crowd.”
It said the security guards were
attacked with beer bottles and locked out of the property during the march.
Police spokesperson Andre Traut said the allegations levelled at the SAPS were without basis and unfair.
“The matter you are referring to is being addressed and stakeholders have been meeting as recently as last week to find a solution for the issue. This process is still under way and follow-up talks are scheduled.
“It is worthy to mention that police interventions are conducted within the framework of the law and we are not in a position to evict illegal occupiers of buildings. This is a responsibility of the court.
“We also do not expect it from anybody to fulfil our obligations to maintain law and order, as we are quite capable of doing it ourselves within the ambit of the Criminal Procedure Act,” Traut said.
Mayor Dan Plato’s spokesperson Lyndon Khan said they would be following up on the matter, and referred the Cape Times to a statement issued earlier this month, wherein Plato committed to engage with both parties.
“I am concerned by Communicare’s report that police simply looked on as an organised building hijacking took place at a social housing complex in Brooklyn. I share their view that there must be consequences for illegal building hijacking attempts, or else there will be no end to this illegality as we’ve seen in Gauteng,” Plato had said.
Cape Times