Residents, who asked not to be named, says the trouble started in 2014 when barrels of ammonia were found on the property.
They say rumours swirled that the barrels were being used to manufacture tik and the City of Cape Town’s Fire and Rescue Services staff evacuated the road as they cleared the toxic material.
Shortly afterwards they noticed skollies and drug users moving into the unoccupied property and started stripping the building.
“They have stolen everything and have taken over there. The prostitutes come here all the time and we see drug deals during the early hours of the morning. We have our car broken into, we see gang fights and the stench from that house is really bad,” a neighbour says.
Residents have reported the matter to the City’s Problem Building Unit (PBU) but say they are unsure about what action is being taken.
City director for safety and security, Richard Bosman, confirms that the property was inspected by PBU and is in violation of various City by-laws.
“Action has been taken in terms of the Problem Building By-law. The property has been declared a problem building.”
The property is owned by a company called F1 Roadworthy and according to one of the directors, Mohammed Moosajee, they are at the end of their tether.
“Welcome to South Africa. These people have stolen everything. They have stolen two alarms. We had ADT monitoring and complaints to SAPS. We are at the end of our tether, we don’t know what to do, we have been taken over by people. We try to clear it out but next month it is going to happen again,” he says.
Moosajee says they have submitted proposals to the City and believe if approved, the problem will go away.