Following months of reporting by the Courier and pressure from the community, a face-brick wall is being built to fence off the notorious vacant plot in Beaconsfield Street opposite Eventide Home for the Aged.
Construction workers moved onto the site last Friday, and the contractor, Yusuf Kader, told the Courier that he had been asked by the owner (who is out of town) to complete the job.

The project was temporarily halted after a man living in the area threatened one of the workers. Hower, the SAPS were asked to intervene and hopes are that the work will soon continue.

Kader said the death of a man in a shack on the plot earlier this month had prompted him to contact the owner and plead with him to take action. He added that the wall will be both aesthetically pleasing and will make the area safer once all the squatters are removed.
A TLB will be dispatched to remove the mounds of litter.

The site has been a source of many complaints from neighbours and residents of Eventide Home. Domestic rubbish has been dumped there under the guise of a recycling effort, which neighbours said they had never been given a chance to object to.
Amanda Els, who lives next door and has long complained about the mess, said she was not party to the recycling effort but allowed some people to use her property to sort out glass bottles that were sold for income.

During a visit by Mayor Mkhize about two months ago, he expressed his shock at discovering the plot was home to over 50 people living in plastic shelters.

Overgrown and neglected houses and plots have quickly turned into hangouts for so-called ‘paras’ (vagrants) who are often linked to copper pipe theft and other criminal activities.
The decay in the Dundee CBD has long irked local residents, who say the non-implementation has rendered the town ‘lawless’.

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