Sixteen Cissie Gool House occupiers arrested
OCCUPIERS of the Cissie Gool House (old Woodstock Hospital) have come out guns blazing against the City following yet another massive operation where metro police, law enforcement officers, traffic and various units within the police and other City departments raided the premises.
Sixteen people were arrested, including 11 undocumented foreign nationals, four for possession of drugs, and one for fraudulent documentation.
This is the second raid the City and police have conducted in the area this year. In February seven people were arrested, days after a fire damaged parts of the building. Two were arrested for having drugs; five were said to have had issues with their documentation.
Metro Police Department spokesperson Ruth Solomons said the City received numerous complaints of drug-related activities from the building. These ranged from drug dealing, possession of drugs and drug abuse to firearm-related activities, including shootings, possession of firearms, and ammunition, illegal movement of firearms and ammunition, and the concealment of evidence.
Solomons said the City responds to complaints and does not choose which to attend to or ignore.
The raid also follows after the occupiers through the Reclaim the City campaign asked Mayor Goerdin Hill Lewis to lease the building to them at an affordable fee. In its response to this, Human Settlements Mayco member Malusi Booi said a survey to determine the identity and number of illegal occupants in the building had been subjected to numerous delays – including intimidation and incomplete details of exactly who is in the building.
Ndifuna Ukwazi said the arrest of the occupiers was not related to any act of public disturbance claimed by law enforcement as reason for the raid. It said the arrests were opportunistic.
Ndifuna Ukwazi organiser Aphiwe Ngalo said the scale of the raid was not justified. Most of the arrests were related to immigration enforcement.
“It is hard not to feel that the raids of Cissie Gool House are an attempt to intimidate occupiers and paint them as criminals when in reality the vast majority living in the house are families who would otherwise be homeless.”
Reclaim the City’s Karen Hendricks said residents appreciated the effort to combat drug-related crimes, but said the excessive presence of law enforcement and opportunistic targeting of foreign nationals was traumatising on the elderly, women and children, and families in this house.
“As the leadership, we are more than willing to co-operate with the SAPS and law enforcement. Should there be another raid, we ask that it be done in a manner that does not leave people traumatised.”