Metro ducks and dives over Umdoni ‘druggy dump’

DURBAN Metro police have some serious explaining to do after the Mail caught them attempting to dump vagrants and drug addicts in Umdoni last week.

Last week, Durban Metro spokesman Eugene Msomi promised to phone the Mail back with comment “within 10 minutes”. He never did and now doesn’t even answer his phone.

The Mail’s photographs of the convoy and subsequent confrontation were even used in national newspapers.

Official word from the eThekweni is that they were: “Simply taking the vagrants home at their request”. However, the vagrants claimed they were from Durban and their families did not reside on the South Coast. The metro officers were sent back to Durban with a warning.

A source from within the SAPS explained that the officer could have been charged with kidnapping, but that it would have been difficult to prove.

All the implicated metro officials, as well as the top brass, stuck to the same story and it would be their word against that of  ‘known whoonga addicts’. No charges were brought for the metro  vehicle’s  licence having expired.

Meanwhile, Mail readers have come forward and reported that this was not an isolated case.
One Pennington woman said she had seen vagrants come and go since the 2010 Soccer World Cup. The vagrants explained to her that they were from Durban and had been moved here without being told where they were going or why.

Another reader from Umkomaas said that for the last two years vagrants had been dumped under a bridge by the beach in the early hours of the morning.

Councillor Sykes Naidoo, speaker of the Umdoni Council, hit out saying that this issue would be a hot topic at the council meeting scheduled for July 30.

He said: “Whilst we sympathise with the plight of these unfortunate souls, it is unacceptable for Durban Metro to transfer their problem to us. The eThekweni Municipality is better equipped and has far more resources than Umdoni to cope with the problem. So this really isn’t fair.”