Florence Matomela House, the ANC regional office in Gqeberha, is to be demolition.

Flagged as one of 84 problem buildings in the city, it is occupied by the homeless, some of whom are said to be involved in crime.

Situated in the city's central business district, the building is in a shocking state of disrepair and the ANC has agreed to calls for its demolition.

The ANC's Nelson Mandela Bay regional deputy chair, Siphiwo Tshaka, said the building posed a huge risk to the occupants and the ANC had agreed to collaborate with businesses to demolish it.

"We will demolish the structure on Friday. We have already told the homeless people to move their belongings because they won't have a place to stay after that," he said.

Tshaka said efforts to find alternative accommodation for the homeless occupying the building had not yielded any results.

"[This] is why we have decided to demolish the structure because we don't want a situation where our building and the neighbouring ones are affected by a fire started by the guys and we didn't do anything when we could," he added.

Terri Stander, the DA Ward 5 councillor who has been advocating for the demolition of the building, said there were many people living there in unsanitary conditions.

Stander said assaults, hijackings, armed robberies, theft out of motor vehicles, smash-and-grabs and house break-ins were some of the crimes that the people who hijacked buildings were allegedly involved in.

"We have a bylaw that deals with problem buildings that the metro must enforce," she said.

"There is no electrical or water supply to many of these buildings and occupants steal electricity with illegal connections, putting their lives at risk."

She has seen children as young as six in the building and is worried about them.

"I am shocked that the city has not learnt from the recent Johannesburg tragedy of the Albert Street fire where 77 lives were lost," Stander added.