VUUR EN VLAM
Town Centre sakeman kwaad after fire at popular Plain mall
Formal traders at Town Centre in Mitchells Plain claim they are suffering a huge business loss due to fire and filth by vagrants who sleep at the Town Centre and are making open fires.
The owner of a formal business at that popular shopping mall says he is fearing for his business after another fire broke out during the early hours of Saturday morning.
The sakeman, who wants to protect his identity out of fear of harassment, said that he had previously fallen victim when his business was broken into.
He explained: “This has been going on for years where stores and businesses are being burned by these people who are sleeping at Town Centre during the night and making fires.
"I have been complaining for years but nothing has been done. There are structures in Town Centre where the informal traders are supposed to trade but the vagrants use these sections and make themselves hokkies from the pallets.
"I fear that the place is going to burn again and my business might be affected then I will lose out. While we are sleeping at night, these vagrants are breaking in and setting the place on fire.”
Jermaine Carelse, spokesperson for the City’s Fire & Rescue Service confirmed that there was a fire at Town Centre before 7am on Saturday.
He said: “This incident was reported to the City’s Fire & Rescue Service at around 06:50am of informal structures alight in Town Centre, on Saturday 9 August.
"The crew from Mitchells Plain was on scene and found it to be rubbish [cardboard boxes, pallets, etc' that was burning. By 07:40, the fire was extinguished.
"No persons were injured or the store was damaged during this incident.”
James Loxton, City Improvement District Manager for the Mitchells Plain Town Centre, said the issue is not the vagrants but the unpermitted informal traders who are depriving legal and permitted traders.
He explained: “One of the informal traders lit a fire, got drunk and the fire took hold of the pallets and burned the enclosures in that area. Where the fire started were illegal, unpermitted informal traders who after numerous requests to remove them kept coming back to Town Centre and caused this incident.
"The City Improvement District cameras together with the Metro police cameras observed the start of the fire and were able to dispatch fire services in real time which prevented it from spreading to any of the buildings, but it has destroyed some of the infrastructures for the informal traders.
"It is being taken very seriously, I have convened a special informal trading committee with Law Enforcement, Metro police and SAPS so we can clean out the small few of unpermitted, illegal informal traders that are housing themselves overnight in the pallets in the course of the week.”