Fed-up Bothasig residents took matters into their own hands last week and sealed up the entrances to what they say is a well-known drug den in Adam Tas Avenue.
The Bothasig Residents’ Association said there was a sigh of relief among the residents after it had taken them nearly a year to get rid of squatters and drug users at the property
The BRA’s chairman, Mario Borcherds, said Bothasig, Edgemead and Richwood residents had donated the bricks to wall up the entrances.
“Each brick donated is appreciated,” he said.
About R6000 for materials had come from residents and various hardware businesses in the community, he said.
Mr Borcherds said the association had followed all the “formal channels” to get permission to brick up the property, and the owner had also been contacted several times about the building being vandalised and used as drug den.
“But he was not interested, and then we started the ‘problem building’ process, and in November it was condemned to a problem building by the City of Cape Town,” he said.
Mr Borcherds said the City had told him it did not have the money to seal off the house but it had given approval for the community to do so.
The property had been stripped of its electrical wiring, taps and other contents, he said.
“The house is in an extremely bad shape, and we don’t know what the owner’s intentions are with the property, but we as a community are proud that we could stand together and make a difference. We are here to look after our suburb,” said Mr Borcherds.
In a statement, the BRA, said it would “not sit back and watch Bothasig crumble. We will fight for our communities and families. Bothasig is our home”.
More than 200 people thanked those responsible on the BRA’s Facebook page.
Ward councillor Miquette Temlett said the property had been problematic for more than a year, leading to reports from concerned residents that she had submitted to various departments within the City.
While legal procedures had delayed the process of declaring the property a problem building, she said she was “grateful to have reached the milestone where access to the building has been restricted, potentially curtailing the purported illicit and unlawful activities associated with it”.
She acknowledged that budget constraints had hindered the City’s spatial planning and environment department’s ability to brick up the building and thanked the BRA and others in the community for “their invaluable assistance in sourcing materials to support the department in expediting this process”.
Bothasig police chief Colonel Jeremy Peterse said they had no records on their system about the house.
“No records of search warrants, complaints and arrests have been recorded there,” he said.
The City did not respond to queries by deadline.
Tabletalk tried to contact the owner of the property on Monday March 11 and again on Tuesday March 12, but his number kept going to voice mail.