SPCA sounds alarm as dumping and crime increase near Sparrow Village
Conditions at the village are deteriorating fast.
Once a model home, care facility, and child care centre for those affected by HIV and Aids, Sparrow Village is today quickly descending into ruin.
While the writing was on the wall long before the exit of Sparrow Ministries’ owner and founder, Reverend Doctor Corine McClintock, it seems the remaining residents, who recently formed their own committee and expressed their intentions to carry on where McClintock left off, have lost control of the facility.
According to Roodepoort/ Krugersdorp SPCA manager Mandy Cattanach, the portion of the village which borders the SPCA is used by the village’s residents as a dumping site and recycling plant.
“People don’t feel safe visiting the SPCA anymore,” she says.
“In addition to the mountains of rubbish that are overflowing from the village, we have to deal with all kinds of illegal activities, including prostitution on our street.
“There are always shady characters hanging around, and even our staff and inspectors don’t feel safe. It has gotten to the point where our charity shop is struggling to stay afloat.”
Cattanach adds that the residents frequently set fire to the rubbish they seem to be collecting, causing thick, foul-smelling smoke.
“The smell is indescribable,” says Cattanach. “It gets into everything.”
The Roodepoort Record’s attempts at getting answers regarding the fate of Sparrow Village have been met with silence from both the City of Johannesburg and the Provincial Departments of Social Development.
During a recent visit to the village, it was evident that the once pristine men’s quarters are today little more than a ruin.
Female residents told the Record that many of them live in fear of what they call ‘the boys’ who terrorise the rest of the residents.
It was recently revealed by McClintock’s niece, who took her in after she fell ill, that the village’s municipal accounts are in arrears to the tune of R58m.
