Unemployed persons on the corner of Vale/Oxford and Oxford/Rocky.

Bryanfern Residents Association
(Incorporating Ferndale West and Bryanston Ext 3)

November 30, 2008

Suggested policy re: - Unemployed persons on the corner of Vale/Oxford and Oxford/Rocky.

Situation
For many years, unemployed males of all ages have assembled on the corners of Vale and Rocky Roads, every morning in the hope of securing “piecemeal” type work. They also gather on the corner of Oxford and Rocky roads. These individuals are encouraged to congregate in these areas by the actions of building contractors, landscapers, persons requiring gardeners etc.

Advantages
These persons provide ready access to much needed local labour in the form of gardeners, painters, construction workers, casual labour etc.

Disadvantages
These workers are disorganised, poorly dressed, not equipped, and at times there are criminals amongst them. Normally, the elderly and ladies are reluctant to stop and enquire, as they are approached en masse. Furthermore it is known that a fair percentage of these persons reside in the local bush areas, including the Arboretum and the Bird Sanctuary. Many are foreigners, mainly Zimbabweans and therefore do not have ID’s. Criminals have been known to mingle with these people to gain access to homes and business for the purpose of criminal activity.

Suggested policy.
a. The area where these persons should assemble must be identified and marketed. This area must have cover from the elements and must have ablutions. In addition, a parking area should be available to allow people to safely park their vehicles. A supervisor must be employed to maintain records and discipline. This supervisor should be funded by a small contribution, say R5, 00, deducted on all persons working for that day. All workers can be employed on a first come, first serve policy.

b. All unemployed persons must be vetted and fingerprinted by the Police.

c. They should be issued with some form of local ID and categorised in terms of gardeners, painters, casuals etc.

d. They should be issued with overalls sponsored by the local business community.

e. Items such as spades, garden forks, rakes, brooms, paint brushes can be donated by local residents and business for continued use on a daily issue basis.

f. These persons would be paid in accordance with the laid down casual labour rates plus say an additional R10, 00 to cover the expense of a supervisor plus other incidental expenses.

g. Legalities such as injuries on duty and working times etc must be looked at by the professionals and governmental/non-governmental bodies.

h. Other projects of a similar nature in other areas should be identified and analysed. There should be no need to reinvent the wheel!

i. Any persons found sitting on the two corners mentioned above, who have not joined the project can be questioned by the police and charged for say, vagrancy? One needs to refer back to an article in the Randburg Sun wherein it was reported that a criminal was picked up from the corner of Vale/Oxford as a casual gardener who turned out to be a murderer. After fleeing from the Police he went back to the same corner and was fortunately apprehended by the Police.

The above recommendations are brief and most certainly not exhaustive and therefore contributions from other quarters will be most appreciated.

ian@lawncareplus.co.za 011 704 4614 or 084 888 1632

Yours Sincerely

Ian Leo
Chairman
Bryanfern Residents Association
(Incorporating Ferndale West and Bryanston Ext 3)

Comments
From: Graeme Dott [mailto:Dott@bac.org.za]
Sent: 01 December 2008 10:12 AM
To: 'JOSE FERREIRA'
Subject: RE: Unemployed persons on corner Vale/Oxford

Hi Maria,

I like this plan-the main point is that it recognizes a problem and tries to create a viable solution. As I have mentioned to you before, the Community Safety Plans are expected to extend into this area and seek solutions for these types of issues. A good plan could hopefully also attract some formal budget support from Community Safety (Cachalia).

Obviously the issue of illegal immigrants is an anomaly in that Home Affairs could theoretically arrive and enforce the repatriation of all illegals-hence they will remain reluctant to have themselves registered!! You also don’t want a process that appears to formalize the work situation of illegal immigrants no matter how sad the situation is. The fact that it would probably flush away the illegals is probably not a bad thing in itself.

It would however formalize the situation of unemployed locals legitimately looking for work. Whether a parallel market would then open up further away where illegal labour is available more cheaply is a reality.

The benefit though is that residents could draw comfort from the registration of the local labour pool and their credentials.

I also believe that a viable set of local projects could be drawn up that would add measurably to the greater Ferndale area-namely litter clean up, public bin maintenance, painting/maint of Public sector areas-Home Affairs/Traffic Reg area, libraries etc, removal of alien vegetation, fence repairs, pavement improvement, rubble/illegal dumping clean up, clean up of storm water drains and road edges of sand/rubble/litter. They could even assist with pot hole/basic road repairs including signage-not to mention suburban road foot patrols. Maintenance of the spruit area/waterways and bird sanctuary area goes without saying.

Little teams for each area could be recruited and assigned under an area “Captain” and resident “mentor”-with some incentive for the best performing team. Hopefully teams might get some sponsorship from individual bigger businesses in the area.
In some way they could become a localized “extension” of the CBD uniformed officials.

My thoughts,

Rgds

Graeme Dott
Cell: 083 307 2587
Tel: 011 883 0717
Fax: 011 883 1679