WATCH: Shock and disbelief as Pretoria’s ‘White House’ is flattened

Homeless men and women stood and watched in disbelief as the notorious Sunnyside White House was being demolished on Wednesday, Rekord East reports.

Homeless people from as far as the CBD rushed to the house as soon as they heard the news.

“We come from town and we heard that our shelter would be no more,” they said.

“How can they be tearing down our home? Some people have been in this house for more than 10 years.”

The building has been a thorn in the side of authorities and nearby residents for a while, as it was said to be a den for criminals, drug addicts and prostitutes.

However, it was also a shelter and home for several families.

“We have pregnant women and children here,” a former resident, who wanted to remain anonymous, told the media.

“Where can we go now? Here we were all different people, we had both South Africans and foreigners here,” she said.

The resident, however, admitted that the White House was used by criminals as a hiding spot after they had committed crimes elsewhere.

“But we have helped the residents who complained of theft and robberies to try and catch these criminals.

“Police know this, as we have also assisted them in arresting criminals,” she said.

The former White House resident said police would often raid their home, but not find anything.

“They have searched this place today and they found no drugs, no weapons – nothing.

“We are simply being used as a scapegoat.”

The woman said residents at the demolished building now had nowhere else to stay.

“We work as hairdressers, clean flats here in Sunnyside and the Pretoria CBD, have stalls and fix shoes. Do they think we have money for rent?”

She said most people who lived at the building were waste recyclers, adding that residents were only told on the day of the demolition, that they could sleep at a church in Arcadia for two days.

“What must we do after those two days? This means we will be back on the streets again.”

Benny Mthembu said: “Now these criminals and drug addicts will be on the streets and who is on the street? Us!”

Mthembu said now it was even easier for students to get robbed because the criminals would be on the streets where they could be easily targeted.

“These guys are homeless now, they want food, money and the only way to access it is through robbing us in the streets.”

He said women and children would now easily fall to rapists.

“Sunnyside just needed a strong police force, that’s it, not demolishing of a home.

“The building was derelict for the last 10 years,” said Tshwane community safety and emergency services MMC Karen Meyer.

Meyer said Sunnyside police had in the past responded to rapes, murders, prostitution and drug-related crimes at the building.

“The crime situation in the immediate surrounding areas of this property has increased phenomenally over the years and even months.”

She said Tshwane emergency services had also ruled the building as being “unsafe”.

Meyer said residents were notified in advance of the demolishing.

“According to the law, we had to put [a notice] up for 48 hours before the time, something which the city did.”

She said the metro also gave residents a number to phone them to help; however, “no one called that number”.

Meyer said White House residents did not believe the city’s seriousness of intent in the matter.