A request to demolish and replace the corrugated-roof shelter, which serves as a bus stop in Klipfontein Road in Rondebosch, has been submitted to the City of Cape Town.
Located in Klipfontein Road directly opposite the entrance to the Red Cross War Memorial Children’s Hospital, the shelter is colloquially known as Canal Walk “because people are always selling something there”, a man wearing a Golden Arrow uniform told People’s Post.
Consisting of a roof, walls and a long bench, the shelter was originally purpose-built for the mothers visiting their ill children at the health facility. However, Katherine Christie, councillor for Ward 58, says the space has been taken over by illegal traders and other “unscrupulous” characters.
According to Christie, drug peddlers and even gang members are hiding among the illegal traders at this bus stop.
“The mothers get pushed out by the illegal traders and the street people who like to sleep there. They don’t feel comfortable or safe using it when waiting for buses or taxis. It is also dirty because people tend to relieve themselves there.”
Christie says Shafiek Adams, a member of the Rondebosch Park Estate’s Neighbourhood Watch, as well as members of the Mowbray Community Policing Forum (CPF), often bring the deteriorating conditions at the bus stop to her attention.
“We conduct regular Displaced Persons Unit (DPI) operations there where law enforcement officers raid the bus stop to investigate whether drug trading is going on there. We clear it up, we clean it up. The City’s Solid Waste Department comes and collects all the rubbish but, of course, as soon as our teams leave, then they come back again,” she says.
On Wednesday 14 December, Christie, together with Adams and a number of City officials, visited the site. Christie says as they approached, the illegal traders quickly dispersed, only to go and stand around the corner, waiting for them to leave.
“We do frequent clean-ups, and more clean-ups. So it is high maintenance, it is manpower, it is time.”
She says the suggestion was made to keep the shelter in place and to look after it, but after a brainstorming session the conclusion was reached that, as long as there is a structure with a roof, walls and bench at the bus stop, people will use it as a venue for squatting and trading.
In an email sent to a senior facilities manager in Public Transport last week, Christie asked for the entire structure – bench, walls, poles and roof – to be completely removed as soon as possible.
Christie says the plan is for Transport to erect the standard bus shelters, “those with the bum rails”, in its place.
“There will be enough shelter to ensure that there is plenty of room for our commuters waiting for taxis and buses.
“And plenty of it, so that there is plenty of room for people waiting for taxis and buses.”
A request will also be lodged for the fence that currently separates the bus stop from the St Giles Association for the Handicapped to be moved forward. Christie explains that St Giles is renting the space behind the fence from the City.
“But I am going to ask if they can just move the wall forward so that St Giles can take that space as well and use it for their garden.”
Christie says she believes the change will be welcomed by the mothers and their children who travel to the Red Cross, plus all the commuters returning home from work.
“We just don’t want to make any area hospitable to people who are lawless and inconsiderate. I am aiming for a zero-tolerance attitude like the City of New York in the 90s which led to a transformation of the inner city and a radical reduction of crime. Every ‘broken window’ should be fixed.”
