Residents have cleared a large patch of land on a prominent bend in Target Kloof because they are sick of the vagrants and criminals they say are sheltering there.
But now the metro says no permit was issued and erosion could result.
Resident Davina Pugh, who helped co-ordinate the clearing, said the community had been at its wits’ end.
“The bush was being used as a brothel and when we tried going in last year we found piles of syringes and needles which police said were from heroin users,” she said.
“There was human excrement everywhere and we had health concerns.”
The final straw was the community’s increasing concerns about security, Pugh said.
“Criminals who were sheltering in the bush were jumping over walls and attacking our domestic staff as they walked to and from work.”
The criminals were apparently sleeping on the overgrown old Target Kloof Road on the south side of the present road and were climbing up the hill into Hallack Road to commit their crimes.
Pugh said they had tried on a number of occasions to get the authorities to intervene.
Municipal parks department employees had been deployed to clear bush but few inroads had been made and problems persisted.
“We tried together with Ward 3 councillor David Hayselden to go in ourselves with slashers and chainsaws.
“At one point we employed a team from Walmer Township, but the problem was too big,” Pugh said.
Last year, a breakthrough seemed imminent, with the previous council inspecting the site and then issuing an instruction that all the alien bush should be cleared.
But after the leadership of the council changed in August, “everything went quiet”.
Determined to find a solution, residents applied to the metro to clear the area properly themselves, Pugh said.
“We received a bush clearing permit from the parks department near the end of last year.
“We organised a bulldozer and driver and e-mailed the department in mid-December as a courtesy just to say we were about to begin but got no reply.
“We started clearing the area on December 19 or 20.”
Asked why they had not just cleared the alien bush and trees, Pugh said it would have been too dangerous and taken too long to tackle the problem in this way, and most of the bush was alien anyway.
Asked about alien growth that would likely now erupt all over the disturbed site, she said they would deal with this problem in a systematic ongoing way. “The felled bush will be cleared soon. Then we will put down indigenous grass.”
Asked if the metro had issued a permit to residents in the Hallack Road area to clear the bush, metro spokesperson Mthubanzi Mniki said “there is no record there was an approval from the municipality”.
He said the metro was aware of the squatter problems faced by the residents but “in instances of this nature, it is advised that residents consult the municipality before embarking on such action”.
He did not answer the specific question regarding the legal status of the site but said it had been covered in a major infestation of alien bush.
“But one must be aware that erosion is probable on slopes.
“Also, disturbance can lead to even greater alien regrowth if not managed correctly postdisturbance.
“Would the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality have taken such drastic action? No – because we are aware of the need to preserve remnant indigenous vegetation.”