By Aerusha Jenal Lalbahadur
The residents of Fernham Drive and Woodham in Westham are living in fear following multiple break-ins in a number of homes in the area, which they attribute to vagrants living in squatter camps that are mushrooming around the vacant land in the neighbourhood.
A resident of Fernham Drive, Mr Pillay, said he is frustrated as the road he stays on has become an eyesore and a crime hotspot, due to squatter camps.
He said: “They started building their swatter camps some time ago and there is around 50 people that are staying there. We have taken this issue to the Phoenix SAPS and security companies but not much has been done. There is a surveillance that is done once in a while but there is still criminal activity taking place.”
Pillay said there has been an increase in robberies after the squatter camps started turning up in their community. “These camps are built using blankets and sticks and that is how these vagrants are living. I just hope that this can be stopped as we do not want it to get to a point where we cannot walk down or road or stand in our yards because we are afraid of who can rob us or hurt us. We have a right to feel safe in our property,” added Pillay.
Another resident, who wished to remain anonymous, said the vagrants jumped into a neighbor’s yard twice in the past two weeks. “The vagrants look to see who is in the premises and when they feel that there is no one then they jump into our yards and steal whatever they can. This has happened in the area twice now and they stole clothes of the line. We are not even safe in our own homes anymore which is terrifying. We do not know where to start, we had tried contacting various officials, however nothing is being done.” said the resident.
The Ward Councilor for the area, Samier Singh, said he is aware of the situation and has taken it up to the relevant departments.
“This is an ongoing issue. As the councillor I have addressed this with metro land clearance and SAPS. Law enforcement chase the guys but they come back. When it comes to loitering, illegal dwelling we send it to the relevant authorities to deal with this. The last email I sent to Metro Police, they were to do an ops to assist but they indicated last time that this falls on the mandate of SAPS so still awaiting on the partnership of both law authorities to deal with this matter. As a councillor I can only escalate to law enforcement to assist in these matter.”
A comment from the eThekwini municipality was not forthcoming at the time of print. However, according to the EThekwini Municipality, their Land Invasion Unit is mandated to stop and discourage people who attempt to illegally occupy land or those involved in land invasion. Members of the public are urged to contact the eThekwini Municipality’s Security Management Unit on 031-311-4699 031 311 4701, 031 311 4667 and 031 311 4702 to report land invasion and 079 821 8879 in an event that the other numbers are busy.
