Residents of Greenacres Village in Bridgewater who live on the brink of the Lourens River are fed up with crime in the area and are demanding that a fence be erected to stop criminals from breaking into their properties.
Last Wednesday (18 October), a walk along the Lourens River (behind Greenacres Village) revealed the scale of the problem as there are various sites where rubbish is being sorted by vagrants. Various temporary shelters were also seen along the route and sites where vagrants build fires to keep the cold weather at bay.
Lillian Albertyn, a community policing forum and neighbourhood watch co-ordinator, and security officials from Fidelity ADT explained to DistrictMail & Helderberg Gazette that the problem is that after these break-ins occur then these criminals disappear into the heavily bushed area around the river and it is too dangerous to go in and look for them.
Heidi Weeks, who has been living in Greenacres Village for the past ten years, have been broken into 17 times over this period and on Sunday 15 October these brazen criminals tried to dig a hole underneath her wall in order to gain entry into her property.
“I have now started closing all of these holes with concrete all along my exterior wall to try and stop criminals from accessing my property,” says Weeks.
San-Marie Barnard, who also lives in Greenacres Village, also had an incident with criminals when her alarm went off on Thursday 12 October and she noticed a man on her roof. Luckily the man left the scene shortly after being noticed.
Weeks and Barnard are now among other residents of the area who are reaching out to the City of Cape Town to ask them to erect a fence in Bridgewater to keep vagrants who are causing these problems away from their properties.
“We have tried to clean up this mess outside of our properties. We have picked up rubbish and pieces of clothes left behind by vagrants who sleep along the river. But a day later the rubbish is back. We are now trying to reach out to the City to assist us,” explains Barnard.
Last Thursday (19 October), a day after meeting the distraught residents, DistrictMail & Helderberg Gazette was invited to a subcouncil meeting where the erection of the fence was supposed to come under discussion. However, minutes before the meeting was about to start Ward 84 councillor Norman McFarlane informed the newspaper that the matter will not be coming under discussion.
“I can’t give any comments until I have seen the final report by the City and that report first has to come before a subcouncil,” explains McFarlane.
Albertyn emphasised that the City will have to come to the table.
“The vagrants are winning this fight because nothing is being done about this problem. However, from a safety side I will try and do everything in my ability to help this community,” says Albertyn.
