President Park residents go bushwhacking
PRESIDENT PARK - The President Park Residents' Association (PPRA) has decided to be proactive in their fight against crime.
Members of the association’s BlockWatch, together with other residents of the area were out on Brand Street recently conducting an operation they dubbed ‘bushwhacking’. Although they were not hiking, they were armed with axes, machetes and small chainsaws to cut down trees in the veld along Brand street. They cut down the trees to discourage squatting in the veld.
Desiree Gainsford, who was present during the operation said, “There are currently three shacks among those bushes.
“Last week, there were more, but after the first operation on the corner of K101 and Dale Road, some of the people living there must have left.”
The association arrived in the area and asked the people living there to collect their belongings and leave the area.
“Some of them actually ran when we arrived with the police,” said Gainsford.
Seemingly, those who ran had good reason. The BlockWatch, together with the Midrand police and Community Policing Forum, found wire cutters, door handles and a bag of dagga.
One of the men who was living on the land, Casper Jowusana, said he had come to call the place home. “I have family that are now living well in Pretoria,” said Jowusana as he explained the reasons behind him not living with his relatives.
“As soon as you cross into South Africa, your family forgets about you… it is every man for himself.”
Jowusana claimed to find his living conditions better than finding an affordable room to live in. “I don’t have a steady income, although I’ve heard of rooms to rent for as little as R200 in Tembisa.”
“I survive by asking for odd jobs, from people who can pay me anything from R50 to R150 for a day’s work.”
The land that Jowusana and others had occupied belongs to the Gautrain Management Agency (GMA). John Gainsford, chairman of the association said, “City Parks and Zoo would not maintain the land as it doesn’t belong to the City of Johannesburg. [This is why we came up with the idea of] PPRA Bushwhackers.
“My vision for the land along the President Park side of Gautrain, from Allandale Road to Dale Road, is a neatly kept, green, nature-friendly park area.”
Communications Officer of GMA Tlago Ramalepa confirmed that they indeed had expropriated the land on Dale Road and the land on Brand Street. “The land was expropriated during the construction of the Gautrain,” she said. Ramalepa did not mention why the land had been expropriated. She said the agency would investigate the allegations of criminal activities.
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