Building material seized

A house in Motherwell NU29 was raided and building material from a nearby municipal housing project confiscated.

Municipal human settlements political head Nqaba Bhanga was alerted to the theft by residents.

He rushed to the housing project where he found people stripping off building material from the doublestorey units.

“Two suspects ran away but we managed to follow up on information about where they lived,” Bhanga said.

Roof trusses, window frames and doors were found in the raided NU29 house, he said.

The suspects were not at the house when police arrived.

In the last two weeks, about 50 semi-detached, double-storey units have been stripped.

Trusses, tiles, ceilings, toilets, door frames, windows and bricks have been stolen.

The houses are among 162 deemed unsafe by the municipality.

Most of the houses vandalised were unoccupied as they were incomplete.

Police said a case of theft was being investigated.