In a ramped-up bylaw enforcement operation this week, officers from the law enforcement departments of the City’s Region F targeted illegal street traders, illegal tuck shops, problematic properties, illegal buildings, illegal mechanics, and non-compliant businesses in Yeoville and Bellevue East.
Over two days, 19 properties were inspected, with 27 infringement notices issued to businesses found in violation of municipal bylaws.
About seven (7) tuck shops found to be in contravention of environmental health and emergency management bylaws were closed. Four (4) illegal spaza shops, five (5) food establishments, one (1) butchery and (1) entertainment joint, were also forced to close.
The school slapped with an infringement notice was busy with illegal building work and registering students in preparation to open doors in January 2023. Building Development Management ordered an immediate halt to all construction work. The school was discovered to lack municipally approved building plans as well as a certificate of registration from the department of education.
The bylaw enforcement operation was coordinated by the City’s Directorate of Citizen Relationship and Urban Management (CRUM) and was directed at inner-city suburbs in Ward 64 and Ward 66.
It focused on the intersections of Minors, Hunter, and Gordon Streets, as well as Joe Slovo Drive. It also zoomed in on inner-city blocks covering St. George, Cavendish, Hopkins, and Bezuidenhout streets in Bellevue East.
“All these areas have tuck shops at almost every corner, and most have no operating licenses and certificates . There are hijacked buildings, the mushrooming of backyard dwellings, vagrancy, and illegal places of learning as well as illegal churches,” said Gabi Dhlamini, the Manager of Urban Management and Regulatory Compliance in CRUM Region F.
City departments that formed part of the operation included Building Development Management (BDM), Environmental Health (EH), Emergency Management Services (EMS), Town Planning (TP) and the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD), who were all hands-on in enforcing municipal bylaws.
Dhlamini stressed that CRUM would continue leading such operations to clean the inner-city and to foster collaborations between stakeholders in the area.
“We need meaningful engagements with our stakeholders in the inner-city to find sustainable solutions to the problems that plague the region,” Dhlamini said.
She added that the City’s enforcement of bylaws in the region was gaining momentum.
“The idea is to work continuously on cleaning our streets and ensure compliance with the rules and regulations of the municipality,” she said.
Written by Dudu Lushaba
03/11/2022