NGO ‘kicked out’ of notorious Sunnyside crime nest
The building is proposed to be used as a possible accommodation facility for TUT, UP and UNISA students.
A “thug nest” building in Sunnyside will be revamped and used as student accommodation, following a recent squabble with community members and an NGO.
The De Villiershof building, located at the corner of Joubert and Steve Biko streets, was infamous among locals for being a hangout for criminals and prostitutes.
Criminals hiding out at the building were said to be terrorising students who studied at TUT and nearby Unisa.
However, following an alleged verbal deal with the building’s owners, namely the Gauteng Department of Infrastructure Development, members of the NGO in question were shocked after they were locked out after recently cleaning up the dilapidated and abandoned building.
The NGO members and local community members were surprised to find that security guards working for the department prevented them from entering it this Sunday morning.
“There was an agreement with the department that community members and the Dare to Love NGO can make the building safe to use again,” said Dare to Love spokesperson Tebogo Mpufane.
According to Mpufane, the agreement was that community members and the NGOs were to clean up the building and could house about 13 homeless women at the building.
“The women, aged between 28 and 56, were sleeping rough outside the Bosman Street taxi rank in the CBD and didn’t have any access to toilets or even a roof over their heads.”
He said most were victims of domestic violence.
The plan was to rehabilitate the women through counselling, skill empowerment and thus reintegrate them back into society.
“So far, the NGOs and community members had cleaned the premises regularly. They even recently created a vegetable garden and offered sewing classes as a means of skill empowering the women.”
ALSO READ:UPDATE: ‘We will struggle without Kruger Park’
A departmental spokesperson, however, denied that there was any agreement between them and the NGOs and community members.
“There was no agreement made by any official,” said departmental spokesperson Bongiwe Gambu.
She said the NGOs were only told to present their business plan to the department in terms of a so-called Request for Proposal (RFP) to develop the property.
“There were a few individuals, whom the department suspects, wanted to hijack the building using the NGOs,” said Gambu.
She also said they had no confirmation that the NGOs were registered with the Department of Social Development.
Gambu said the department had earmarked the building as future accommodation for students.
“We deployed security to safeguard the building, so that it would not be used for any criminal activities and to prevent further vandalism.”
The Department of Infrastructure Development said it decided to turn the building into student accommodation following research by Gauteng provincial authorities.
The planned accommodation will house students from Unisa’s Sunnyside campus, University of Pretoria’s Groenkloof campus and TUT’s main campus.
ALSO READ: Pta dilapidated buildings to become student accommodation
WATCH:
Do you have more information about the story? Please send us an email to editorial@rekord.co.za or phone us on 083 625 4114.
For free breaking and community news, visit Rekord’s websites:
For more news and interesting articles, like Rekord on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Instagram
