Table View police, the City of Cape Town’s Law Enforcement and Anti-Land Invasion Units visited the so-called ‘tent city’ along Blaauwberg Road, Table View this morning (11 January) as part of their plan to clear the area of vagrants.
Several men and women have set up make-shift tents on a vacant piece of land seeking shelter from the hot summer days and cold nights. TygerBurger reported on the issue regarding the dwellings and the need for a homeless centre in the Table View and Milnerton communities in today’s edition.
It is still unclear as to how many men, women and children occupy the piece of land behind the Potsdam taxi rank, however one community leader here put the amount at 15 adults and one child.
This morning Law Enforcement principal inspector Wayne Aldridge told TygerBurger that they visited the area to determine what they will need if they are to go forward with the clean-up operation.
“Today we visited the area to determine what we need here. We are getting different and conflicting information from the community as to how many people are here, so we called in Law Enforcement and Anti-Land Invasion to determine what is needed. The police was also on board,” Aldridge says.
He says the plans are to re-group and come back with the necessary resources to be able to continue with the clean-up.
“We will get hold of social development and the land owners to find out if they can clear the vegetation and the rubbish in the meantime. Once that has been established we will clear-up the area,” he adds.
Aldridge says a lot of the people in the informal camp are suspected gang members or ex-convicts.
“They are very calm. But when they saw Anti-Land Invasion they can become very hostile, however we informed them that today’s visit is not to do the operation, but to determine what the needs are.”
