Two men arrested with bakkies partially loaded with bricks and materials taken from an old municipal building claim that they didn't know the goods were stolen.
Two men arrested with bakkies partially loaded with bricks and materials taken from an old municipal building claim that they didn't know the goods were stolen.
They were among 12 people arrested on Tuesday morning at the site near the corner of Currie and Fitzroy Streets.
The building hasn't been used for years, except by Ward 3 councillor Marcelle Booysen whose office is on the premises. In recent months it has been vandalised and stripped off its roofing, bricks and other materials.
When Grocott's Mail arrived at the scene, 10 of the suspects were squashed in the back of a police van while the two men driving the bakkies stood outside.
The men in the van said that they had been sent by their employer to take materials from the site. We did not know that it was not allowed because we have seen a lot of people taking the bricks and nobody stopped them, one man said.
The men in the van accused the police of being racists, claiming that the white men who had employed us to do this job had not been put in the van with them. We had just arrived here starting to work when suddenly the police came and arrested us, but our bosses were not arrested. This is a racist act, one of the suspects said.
But the two men whose bakkies contained the stolen goods denied sending the workers to the site and claimed that they had only come to buy materials from them.
Meanwhile two of the men inside the van said a woman from Hooggenoeg, whose name is known to Grocott's Mail, had sent them to get bricks and promised to pay them R200.
Also on the scene was Mind councillor Devon Waldick who said he had phoned the police and reported the incident. This was the third time he had reported theft from the site, he said.
Waldick also informed acting municipal manager Riana Meiring about the incident and said she has officially opened a case of theft and vandalism of municipal property.
I forced the police to arrest the other guys who the suspects claimed were their employers, because they can't go free when the others are arrested, he said.
Waldick believes the damage to the property comes to over R3 million. He warned people who have bought looted materials from the site that their homes could be raided if they are found to be using stolen goods.
After spending some time at the scene the police instructed the two alleged employers to follow them in their bakkies to the police station.
Police spokesperson Mali Govender confirmed that 12 people were arrested, one of whom was a woman. They were charged with theft and damage to property, she said.
The group was due to appear in court this week.
