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The police and Red Ants cut a swathe through Berea, confiscating goods and tearing down illegal buildings.
IT was business as usual for most shops on Abel Road in Berea, on Monday 12 October - until their worst nightmare.
The Red Ants get to work
The Red Ants, the demolition company, showed up with the by-law enforcement unit of the Johannesburg metro police department (JMPD) and the South African Police Service (SAPS). The three groups were on a mission to tear down illegal buildings.
The operation started at the crack of dawn, with an energetic team of over 50 police officers ready to start their day, despite the morning chill and a bit of a drizzle.
A convoy led by the wailing sirens of the JMPD and SAPS cars headed for Abel Road, where the crew's first target was a place called Pat's Restaurant and Fast Food.
Here they started by confiscating products inside the store before tearing the building down. As the bulldozer got to work, spectators gathered, watching in disbelief.
Next to the restaurant was a pawnshop from which the police officials seized televisions, sound systems, computers and fax machines. It, too, was torn down.
According to Region F's operations manager, Thys Pretorius, occupants of the illegally erected structures were given 30 days' notice to vacate the buildings.
Pretorius explained that the buildings were being removed as a way of restoring safety and security to the inner city and to curb crime, saying that they were usually associated with crime.
Buildings were being removed as a way of restoring safety and security to the inner city
Other shops along Abel Road were also targeted - a hair salon, a cellphone repair shop, a public phone shop and a supermarket. All were destroyed as people watched in shock.
"The purpose of the operation is to enhance law enforcement in the inner city and surrounding crime hot spots, thus meticulously addressing prevailing lawlessness in certain parts of the inner city and to bring sense of safety and comfort to the many users of the inner city space," said the regional director of Region F, Nkosinathi Mthethwa.
The demolitions formed part o f the inner city's crime prevention and by-law enforcement operation, which started on Friday, 9 October.
A number of blitzes have taken place in all four quadrants of the inner city, with many arrests made for property crimes, by-law infringements, vehicle theft, trading in stolen and counterfeit goods, and building hi-jacking.
More blitzes are still to take place, including closing down bad buildings, arresting people with summons against them, closing facilities used as prostitution houses, arresting undocumented people, and raiding the 100 most wanted criminals per cluster, including the Hillbrow and Joburg Central clusters.
The crime prevention operation is set to continue until Friday, 16 October.
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