Fire spreads through GMM hostel in eMbalenhle
Residents of Ext 8 are afraid of the hostel dwellers and hope the municipality will demolish the building.
eMBALENHLE – Firefighters worked tirelessly to extinguish a fire at the Govan Mbeki Municipality’s abandoned hostel in eMbalenhle on Monday afternoon, November 28.
The hostel was neglected when all the other municipal hostel blocks were converted into rental units for families a few years ago.
Ridge Times posted a brief about the fire on our Facebook page on Tuesday and comments have been flooding in since.
Residents of Ext 8 in eMbalenhle are concern about this particular hostel where illegal and criminal activities allegedly abound.
“Why doesn’t the municipality either renovate or destroy the building?
“The hostel is currently occupied by people whom we don’t even know. We are robbed when we knock off late at work,” said a resident of Ext 8.
Residents also want to know why the municipality did not first go to the hostel in their fight against illegal electricity connections.
They claimed the hostel is riddled with illegal connections.
The residents believe that even the police are too afraid to raid the hostel, because the occupants are allegedly armed and dangerous.
“Our children always visit the hostel to buy dagga and other drugs and our police are aware of these illegal activities.
“We are also scared to pass near the building, especially at night and on weekends. We as the residents of Ext 8 feel unsafe all the time. Sometimes we hear gunshots during the night.
“Our municipality must act now because we can not live like this,” said another resident.
Lucky Mhlongo, the acting communications manager at GMM, said the fire brigade was deployed to extinguish the flames in that hostel.
“The fire was spreading fast, but they managed to extinguish it.”
Mhlongo said the people living in that hostel have invaded it.
“We have served them with a notice to vacate, but they are still there.”
Mhlongo said the municipality does not have any contract with these occupants and does not have alternative placement for them.
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