Harassment from vagrants living in the bus shelters on Durban and other roads in Durbanville has become unbearable for nearby residents, who have made an urgent call for the bus shelters belonging to Golden Arrow Bus Services (Gabs) to be removed by the City of Cape Town.
Vagrants sleep and store their goods in the shelters making it unusable for commuters as they have become a source of stench and rubble. Resident Charmaine Gray, who lives directly opposite a bus shelter, made a desperate plea to City authorities after a recent incident in which she was threatened by a vagrant at about mid-day while parked in Alison Road.
“I was speaking on my cellphone when it happened. I have never engaged this vagrant, spoken to him or had any interaction with him. He simply came up to the passenger side of my vehicle and started to threaten me. I had to call our local neighbourhood watch to intervene,” she reported.
“There were reports to our local neighbourhood watch of this same man placing rocks in plastic bags and boxes and then positioning them across Durban Road for vehicles to have accidents; this over and above the rocks he throws at passing vehicles,” says Gray.
“When I got home the same day at about 20:30 my neighbour came down my driveway to warn me that this vagrant had been at his home a short while before, threatening him with a panga. Again members of the neighbourhood watch were called and the vagrant was asked to move on. We were advised that it was a toy panga, but how was my neighbour who has young children, to know this? The threat was a very real one. It is still a criminal offence to threaten another person with a weapon, even if it is a plastic one.”
According to Gray her neighbour also found a four inch knife in the bus shelter among the same vagrant’s stuff.
“I also personally witnessed him placing a long bladed knife inside his trouser leg and I reported this to the neighbourhood watch. He is a danger to everyone around him. I cannot begin to describe the stress and trauma we have experienced because of this man. I tried to call Durbanville police to come out and help, but their phone just rang.”
Gray says she lives in fear as she often comes home when it is dark.
“These vagrants are a constant threat and the filth, excrement and violence is totally unacceptable. I have my elderly parents sharing my home with me and I am frightened they will be attacked by these vagrants when going out and coming home. I am too scared to go out at night and do not feel safe anymore.”
Grey says she has also witnessed the vagrants making open fires right next to the bus shelters near to residential homes and businesses.
“Why must I be made a prisoner when removing the shelters will stop the problem?”
Former ward councillor Theresa Uys, now Mayco member for corporate services, told TygerBurger that the dire situation at these bus shelters is unacceptable, but needed a holistic approach in solving.
“Due to a court interdict obtained against the City with the advent of the pandemic the homeless cannot be removed by the City and more often than not they refuse to be relocated,” she says.
Uys says Gabs had the shelters renovated for the use of commuters who can now not use the shelters.
“But the shelters will be needed for commuters to use come winter time. Commuters now have to stand on the side of the shelters and the City staff spend hours clearing the rubbish left behind.”
She says law enforcement does patrol the area, but does not have the manpower to go to the shelter every day.
“The activities of the vagrants at these shelters are totally unacceptable and I have great empathy with the community,” she says.
She urges residents to not give vagrants any hand- outs as it empowers them to stay on the streets.
“One recommendation we are looking at is maybe to install structures inside the shelters to discourage vagrants from sleeping there,” she says.
“We are aware of the problem and I am as frustrated as the residents currently. I ask residents to continue phoning the police every time they witness anti-social or criminal behaviour at the shelters.”
