Cape Town - With dry and windy conditions prevalent at this time of the year in the Mother City, residents living on the Atlantic Seaboard are complaining that the City is not heeding their complaints regarding homeless people starting fires in the bushes in the area.
On Monday, a fire broke out below Kloof Road in Clifton after 7pm.
In a video captured by a resident, two men can be seen trying to save their belongings and the rest of their structure as a palm tree, which they seemingly used as a hideout, burns.
Another fire, not connected to the homeless people, started on the evening of October 8 below Camps Bay Drive in the Little Glen.
Freedom Front Plus City councillor Paul Jacobson said the bushes where Monday’s fire broke out was an area he had been dealing with for some time, with no response from the City.
“We have two sets of bushes. One comes down from Camps Bay High School and between Victoria Road, which is hidden and dangerous. There is a mass of vagrants sleeping in there.
“A homeowner who recently bought his home expressed his shock when he noticed around 30 street dwellers sleeping in those bushes.
“Below Victoria Road, towards Maidens Cove, there are also bushes where people are hiding and regularly start open fires, which pose a danger to residential houses in Clifton,” he said.
Jacobson said in addition to the numerous sporadic fires there had also been reports of attacks on learners from Camps Bay High School by homeless people.
Jacobson described a response from mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis regarding the fires as pathetic, while he said ward councillor Nicola Jowell, instead of ensuring bush dwellers were removed, handed out refuse bags for them to clean up their litter.
“While JP Smith confirmed that there are other more problematic areas in Cape Town, which we know are gang-ridden areas, this is an area reckoned as one of the most pristine in the world for tourism and we are dealing with attacks every day,” he said.
Jowell said two suspects were arrested for Monday’s fire. Jowell, who criticised the FF+ for continually driving a narrative that the City is doing nothing, said significant work had been done in this area by field workers from Social Development, Law Enforcement, and the Provincial Social Development Department.
She said the Sub-Council’s cleaning team had done a vast amount of work in cleaning the area with active residents, who she said were assisting in looking after these vital green belts in the Clifton area.
Law Enforcement spokesperson Wayne Dyason said the cause of the two fires had not been established.
Dyason, however, said any fire made in an area not designated for the purpose was of concern, especially with the upcoming warmer months. He said the risk to surrounding properties and lives was also of concern.
Dyason said while some street people make fires to cook, public spaces have also become commonplace for people to make fires to burn copper.
Community Services and Health mayoral member Patricia van der Ross said street people can take up shelter spaces and access developmental and other programmes to help them off the streets, but these offers are voluntary, adding that most people refuse these offers.