St Luke’s Hospice in Grassy Park is being destroyed ‘one brick at a time’ and is allegedly being turned into a drug den.
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This is according to Hospice daycare coordinator, Nadia Emjedi, who said the vandals and ‘drug addicts’ were stealing ‘anything and everything’, from doors and burglar bars to wires and light beams.
‘It has constantly been happening, but the last straw was yesterday (Monday) when our shop door was taken off, she told News24 earlier this week.
‘They slowly started getting through the building day by day, weekend by weekend and then yesterday they got to our door of the shop, so obviously we had to do something about that. We removed everything that was left inside. We gave all our stuff away.’
‘The things we normally sell are 100% second hand and all profit usually goes to caring for our patients.’
Speaking to the People’s Post, a community activist, who asked not to be named out of fear of victimisation, said that vandals had started breaking through the roof.
‘They got through, then made their way stealing everything they could get their hands on as well as copper and wires.’
‘They sell it and burn it. Once they had everything inside, they started stealing the doors and whatever they could lay their hands on.’
The activist added that while vandalism had become a daily occurrence, most of the incidents took place during loadshedding.
She recalled an incident when a stranger walked into the hospice while patients and nurses were inside.
‘He had a number 26 on his neck and he told the sister that he is going to take whatever he wants.’
‘He took the lights and walked out. We suggested that the nurses keep their front door open so that the neighbourhood watch could keep an eye on them.’
‘Now the security gate at the front door is also gone. Winter is coming and the door can’t be kept open because they are working with sick people. It is very sad.’
‘This is now a drug den. They also bring women here at night. This is a sleeping place. When I open the gates at 05:45 every morning, they move out of here.’
According to Emjedi, residents are too afraid to identify the perpetrators.
‘Before it was only minor and it is definitely the drug addicts,’ she said on Tuesday.
‘Hospice is an organisation that works for its own funds so it is hard to still pay for security. We see most of our own expenses and the shop was one of the places where we got some of our income.’
‘We have reported the incident to the police and when we open a case, we receive an SMS a few days later that the case has been closed because there is no evidence.’
Meanwhile, the City of Cape Town (CoCT) said that they were aware of the vandalism, adding that the buildings were owned by the city, which leased two of the three sections to St Luke’s.
‘There are plans in progress to post security guards and subsequently commence repairs,’ stated the CoCT.
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