http://www.themercury.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=4985930

Four arrested over shack building material

May 18, 2009 Edition 1

NOMPUMELELO MAGWAZA

FOUR people were arrested in Durban yesterday after they were found in possession of suspected stolen building material.

Sydenham police Superintendent Glen Nayager said that residents from the Foreman Road informal settlement had notified officers that the material, which was intended for the reconstruction of burnt shacks, was being stolen.

He said the police had watched the area and four men travelling in a bakkie with the building material were arrested yesterday.

“They were taken to Sydenham police station and were later charged with being in possession of suspected stolen material,” said Nayager.

Foreman Road ANC chairwoman Patricia Mjoli, however, denied that the material had been stolen. She said the remaining material had been stored in some of the rebuilt shacks by the Foreman Road ANC committee for safety.

“I was one of the people asked by the committee to store doors and window frames. The committee had decided to remove the material to a safe place this morning (yesterday), but they left some in our shacks. Then people stormed into my shack, demanding the material, and I was afraid that they would hurt me.”

Mjoli, who was not among those arrested yesterday, said she had been accused by locals of stealing building material that belonged to the settlement’s residents. She could not explain why it had not been used and had been stored.

Nayager said the police had been called to the settlement to break up fights between residents later in the day.

“People’s houses had been broken into after others found building material inside their newly built shacks. We had to break up fights and we used stun grenades to disperse the residents. Some people were taken in for questioning,” he said.

He said police were monitoring the area and would be there for the night.