A letter from the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure (DPWI) indicates that there might be light at the end of a very long and dark tunnel for Wynberg residents living close to three derelict properties located in Waterloo Green Road.
For the past seven years, the three houses – owned by DPWI – have been left to go to ruin with street people living and systematically stripping the two properties located furthest down the road.
In 2017, the City of Cape Town’s Problem Building Unit declared the latter two dwellings – both of which hold significant heritage value – problem buildings.
Although the City, in such an instance, has the power to serve the owner with a list of contraventions, ordering they be corrected, very little seems to have been “corrected” in the years since.
But if a letter from the DPWI, addressed to Samantha Graham-Maré, DA Shadow Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure, is to be believed, the wheels of governance might, at last, be starting to turn.
On Friday 18 February, Penny Penxa, regional manager: Western Cape, DPWI, wrote that the funding for the demolition of two of the three homes have been approved.
“The relevant instructions from head office are due to be received in the regional office in due course. On receipt of the documentation, a project manager will be appointed to communicate with Heritage Western Cape. Thereafter, if authorised by Heritage Western Cape, the project manager will draft the scope of works for the purpose of a tender that will be advertised for the demolition to be undertaken,” the letter read.
In terms of the third vacant dwelling, Penxa stated that arrangement had been made for the appointment of security services to prevent illegal occupation and or vandalism of the house.
Emile Langenhoven, councillor for Ward 62, shared the content of the letter with Wynberg residents via email last month, saying that this was a positive step toward what he was trying to achieve within Wynberg.
Should the problems at Waterloo Green finally be addressed, nobody would be more relieved than David Hoffman who has lived in Ellerslie Road for the past 20 years.
“I’m cautiously optimistic. We have had thousands of meetings with, and I have sent thousands of emails to the DPWI.
“They don’t even respond to my emails anymore,” he says.
Hoffman’s property is located directly opposite the third dwelling. Up until recently, this home had been saved from the threat of being overtaken by homeless people because it had a police officer living there.
However, the officer has now moved out, leaving the property vacant and vulnerable.
He explains that the problems began around 2015. Prior to that, all three houses were let to members of the military or police but, according to what he has heard, the department just stopped maintaining the houses.
As two of the homes became unliveable over the years, these tenants moved out and homeless moved in, bringing with them a barrage of social ills, he claims.
One of these properties, called Ye Olde Thatch which has heritage status, has suffered at least two fires in recent years.
Illegal occupation
Hoffman says, to his knowledge there are about 15 to 17 homeless people living in the Ye Olde Thatch and the adjacent property.
According to him, there are two homeless people in charge at these buildings.
They allegedly rent out rooms. To ensure the third property doesn’t go the same route as the other two, and to safeguard the value of his own, Hoffman has even gone so far as to pay the two “landlords” a monthly fee.
“I give them a certain amount of money out of my own pocket not to move in there. If that happens, my property will lose R1 million in value in one day,” he says.
When People’s Post visited Waterloo Green Road on Sunday 27 February, there were definite signs of human habitation at Ye Olde Thatch and the adjacent property located at the end of the cul de sac.
Hoffmann says the City had indicated in 2017 at community meetings that these windows and doors would be bricked up. None of them were. One of the windows at Ye Olde Thatch was, however, covered with a blanket.
Presumably put there by the homeless to protect them from the elements.
A security guard, stationed at the adjacent home, was found fast asleep.
Social ills
Hoffmann says the main issues at Waterloo Green at present are health and safety.
“They have nowhere to go for the toilet. They just defecate in the open field behind the homes. Or they empty their poo buckets into the canal running through there. The stench is terrible.”
He says there are also cases of opportunistic crime in the surrounding area, for example, thefts out of cars and garages, and he says prostitutes take their clients to the open field.
“There are two schools here – primary schools. The prostitutes perform their acts right there in the field. I can’t tell you what I have seen,” he says.
Cause and effect
Wayne Dyason, spokesperson for City Law Enforcement, says steps taken by the Problem Building Unit in the past few years to secure the buildings on behalf of the DPWI include having secured the garage “by means of bricking up and cutting back the vegetation and overgrown grass”. He noted that the DPWI had also put up a vibracrete fence around the property.
Something which residents weren’t happy about, according to Hoffmann. He says residents requested a clear-view fence so that they could report if anything dodgy happened behind the fence, but, he says, they were told the department didn’t have the budget for this.
Subsequently, a section of the vibracrete wall has collapsed, again allowing easy access.
As to the delay in having the two dilapidated buildings demolished, Dyason says it needs to be taken into account that these properties have heritage status.
“Demolition orders are generally not granted easily for such properties,” he says.
