THE Pietermaritzburg city centre is in danger of being overrun by vagrants.
That's the warning from businesspeople and opposition parties in light of the increasing number of homeless people in the city, most of whom are teenagers.
Business owners allege that four big businesses have closed down since June.
“Several businesses have closed down and another big one is about to close,” said DA councillor Jerome Majola.
“They (vagrants) were in Retief Street and were chased away, now they are sleeping in Pietermaritz street. What is going to happen to the businesses there?”
IFP councillor Thinasonke Ntombela said he had recently personally witnessed an incident where a police officer pursuing one of the vagrants for a robbery, was attacked.
A businessman who runs a fruit and vegetable business in the city centre, and did not want to be named, said some of the big businesses in the city had closed down because of the state of the city. He said vagrants slept right outside business premises, leaving the business owners to clean up each day.
Leo Quayle, President of the Pietermaritzburg Chamber of Business said electricity, water and sewerage infrastructure and inner city decay were challenges.
“The CBD will have several challenges, especially if provincial government relocates outside the city centre as has been mooted several times. This will leave many empty buildings contributing further to the decay.”
He said businesses moving out of the CBD was not unique to Pietermaritzburg.
Municipal spokesperson Thobeka Mafumbatha said they had undertaken a number of initiatives, which included having a street store where the mayor engaged with people living on the streets by giving them an option to be moved to a safe house.