Business owners in Port Elizabeth's Govan Mbeki Avenue near Crawford Street are concerned about safety after an office building in the area was turned into a block of flats.

A business owner who did not want to be named said she had first been concerned on noticing washing hanging at the Medlaw House premises about five months ago.

"At first I thought vagrants had taken over the building but when I enquired I found out that the offices were being used as rooms."

"I have been operating in this area for many years, and that building was used as offices."

"We don't want this section to become another Central because we would lose our businesses," she said.

Another owner complained about the noise and said businesses were now forced to have more security.

On the first floor of the building, five offices have been turned into small flats, furnished with beds, TVs, stoves and cupboards.

Two women residents said they were not South Africans and that they had been living there for "a long time".

Asked about the rent they paid, they refused to answer.

Medlaw House owner Gabriel Sure said he rented the building out to Govan Mbeki Avenue hawkers who used it as storage space. He denied people were living there, except for the caretaker who kept the building clean.

Sure said he had never received any complaints from other businesses and that the allegations might be related to competition as he also owned a fabric shop.

The hawkers who stored their goods at his building were mostly from other African countries, he said.

"I don't see anything unusual about that."

"All I am trying to do is to help these people out because these traders are just doing what they can to put bread on the table."

Municipal spokesman Lou- rens Schoeman said the building was zoned for "business one", which meant that Sure could rent it out as flats.

However, he said that the building had to comply with certain requirements.

The municipality had not received any complaints, he said, but the environmental services department would investigate the matter.

Eastern Province Herald