The crackdown on Nelson Mandela Bay’s building hijackers in Richmond Hill ended in success on Friday after Shamiel Arends was found packing his belongings.
Arends, who lives with his wife and others who work for him, has lived on the property for three years without paying rent.
The Richmond Hill Special Rating Area (SRA), along with ward 5 councillor Terri Stander, Humewood police station CPF and a private security company, were behind his eviction.
The team pounced on illegal occupants of two properties on Thursday, and managed to clear another building.
They returned on Friday to the house Arends had hijacked.
Humewood police station CPF chair Kevin Slattery said seeing Arends pack his belonging proved that they had conducted the operation successfully.
“It is a wonderful and amicable result between all the collective stakeholders in ensuring that the first of the buildings that have been identified in the municipal problem buildings list has been and attended to.”
Of the 84 properties listed on the municipal problem building list, 46 are in ward 5 where illegal water and electricity are used.
Slattery said the property owner had been on the verge of losing her building due to it being on the list and she had approached the SRA for assistance.
He said the property would be boarded up.
“All the rubbish, rubble and the social disorder that used to take place here is a byproduct of a hijacked building.
“I don’t think the guys will come back. The crime will be shifted to another area and that’s why we need to be vigilant. These people are displaced so we need to take that into account, which is why we can’t be heavy-handed when dealing with them.”
Slattery said they would assist them where they could and monitor the situation.
When approached for comment Arends, who was busy packing his belongings, said he had nowhere else to go but the streets.
“Like I said, we don’t have anywhere else so our best option is the streets and that’s where we are going.”
Richmond Hill SRA director Malcolm Maclean said they did not conduct the operation just to evict people from buildings but acted on the notices owners were sent by the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality.
“As the SRA we aim to keep this suburb clean and safe,” he said.
“We are not a policing organisation, we just want to give residents what they pay a levy for, which is a safe, secure and clean environment.”
He said he was happy the occupants had co-operated and hoped that was how things would go in future evictions.
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