NEWS 5
PEOPLE'S POST | ATHLONE Tuesday, 3 September 2013
NIKITA SYLVESTER Playtime is over at a children’s park in Heideveld Road which has come under threat by wayward teens who use the community facility to drink and get high. The park equipment has been ripped apart and stolen to maintain the youths’ drug habits, leaving locals livid. Dixie Court resident Yasmiena Ajam regularly sees the hooligan behaviour play out at the park. “They make fires and sit around drinking and smoking drugs. When I see them I chase them away immediately. The park was built for the children of Heideveld to enjoy,” she fumes. Ajam says the seesaw’s handlebars were recently stolen to feed an addict’s tik addiction. Not long thereafter, she noticed that the entire seesaw was missing. “I was in bed one night and heard strange noises coming from outside. The next day I realised it was the seesaw that had been ripped from the ground.” She suspects the culprits are planning to return to steal the jungle gym as she noticed
HEIDEVELD: FACILITY ABUSED BY TROUBLESOME TEENS
Playpark pests
parts had already been torn from the foundation. Ajam recalls confronting a group of young men on Eid who had parked their cars next to the park, which is opposite her house. She says they were playing incessantly loud music, drinking and doing drugs. “They had no respect for us who were celebrating Eid. I told them to leave the area as they do not belong here,” she says. Resident Salega Kamaldien says the children who congregate at the park are meant to be in school and that once the bell rings there about 30 to 40 youngsters at the park causing a nuisance and smoking dagga. “There are little kids who also sit there and join in the activities. Many of us don’t allow our children near that park anymore. They cannot be exposed to this kind of behaviour,” Kamaldien insists. She feels that such misconduct merely attracts more crime to the area. Elizabeth Arendse of the Heideveld Neighbourhood Watch says volunteers as well as the court watch members often patrol the park to rid the area of the unruly youth. A tree rooted right next to the park is also used as a hide-out by the teenagers to go about their activities undetected. “We received complaints from the community about this tree and found that the children have put a mattress in between the branchNO MORE GAMES: While some children use a park in Heideveld es where they can drink and for the intended purpose, suspected drug addicts are vandalising smoke. We have requested the facility. PHOTO: NIKITA SYLVESTER that the council remove the
branches, but so far nothing has been done,” Arendse says.
Ward councillor Anthony Moses says police and Metro Police regularly patrol the area to rid the park of hooligans. Council has pruned the trees in an attempt to discourage children from building tree houses and floodlights near Dixie and Alison courts have been installed. “The City of Cape Town is doing all we can, but parents must also play their part in keeping their children who are causing trouble out of the park.”
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