Within hours of contractors bricking up problem buildings in Central last week, vagrants knocked out the bricks and cement and reclaimed the derelict structures from which they had been evicted.
A quick response by private security operatives helped two tourists recover their passports and other stolen goods after they were held at knifepoint in Central on Monday.
A pamphlet with safety tips for tourists meant to be handed out to them as they hit Nelson Mandela Bay’s shores could instead be just the thing that lands them in dangerous situations.
Gqeberha residents are pulling together to restore a busy but once gracious thoroughfare in Richmond Hill that has been brought to the brink by criminals, drug addicts, rogue tenants and tonnes of rat-infested rubbish and excrement.
From church windows dating back to the 1400s to well-known hotels with seedy beginnings, Central has a history worth preserving, and a group of concerned Gqeberha residents hopes to revive the once-vibrant heart of the Bay to its former glory.