Within hours of contractors bricking up problem buildings in Central last week, vagrants knocked out the bricks and cement and reclaimed the derelict structures from which they had been evicted.
While members of the Central Special Rating Area (SRA) and politicians are trying their best to have the worst of the ruined buildings demolished, due to their link with drug and criminal activity in the area, those finding refuge in these properties keep returning because they have no other options.
“I’ve been staying here for two years now. Do you think I want to stay in this place?
“I have no other choice. It’s either this, or I am sleeping out on the street,” Nunke Faku said.
On Wednesday last week, CityWide Security members visited several problem buildings in Central, warning those staying in them that the SRA had arranged for building contractors to seal off the buildings.
The next day, the DA led a delegation to some of the same sites while construction teams were bricking up the entrances.
However, before the cement could even set, the same holes were reopened and those who call these ruins home were back.
One such building, the three-story Clifton Mansions in Hope Street, was back to full capacity by Thursday night.
Faku, 59, said he had moved to Gqeberha from the Mthatha region two years ago, and had since his arrival lived in the basement level of Clifton Mansions, accessible from a door at the back of the building.
“We are four people who live at the bottom,” he said.
“We cook and sleep here at night, but during the day we are out looking for work, trying to make some money to put food in our bellies.”
Each floor of the building is accessible only from the outside, and there is no staircase inside the building linking the different levels.
On the bottom floor, four mattresses are divided between two dark rooms.
In one room the only light source is a small crack in the wall, while a little electrical lantern stood on the floor in the other room.
Faku, who works as a car guard in Govan Mbeki Avenue, said those living on the bottom floor all had work and could take care of themselves.
They kept to themselves and had very little interaction with those upstairs.
“We see people coming and going upstairs,” he said.
“Sometimes we see many different faces and we often see the police do raids up top.
“They search our place as well, but we try to stay away from crime.
“But those guys up top are naughty. The police often take them away, and tomorrow we see new faces there.”
While he earns as much as R200 a day working as a car guard, he is counting the days to his 60th birthday in June, when he qualifies for a government grant and can “retire”.
Stephen Moore, director at CityWide Security and member of the Central SRA, said they had been made aware of Clifton Mansions being reopened by Thursday night and were arranging for the building to be sealed up again.
“It has been an ongoing battle for some time now,” he said.
“Last week was not the first time we closed off this building, and we suspected it would only be a matter of time before it was reopened.
“Constantly bricking them up is not sustainable because we as the SRA incur serious costs for a very temporary fix.
“We hope to see action taken at some of these problem buildings.
“They are attracting some dangerous criminal elements to some of our city’s most beautiful historic locations, and what could be a boon for the city is now becoming an eyesore.”
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