Businesses want to resuscitate Main Street

Numerous stakeholders had a walk through the streets of Rosettenville and Kenilworth, particularly Main Street to document and highlight concerns that are prevalent in the area on July 27.

The stakeholders were: Southern Business Community Forum, Guardian Angels Security Services, CoJ Augmented Services, Johannesburg Metro Police Department, Moffat View SAPS and CPF, ward 56 councillor and the Environmental Health Department at the University of Johannesburg.

Immediately when issues were identified, augmented services logged in a complaint on the system to the relevant departments and included images to substantiate the findings made.

There were several findings, which included a property with several activities at corner Vincent and Verona roads where there is a shebeen operating on the premise, substandard infrastructure, people being housed at night with a cost attached (accommodation establishment), clattered and unorderly premises, vehicle repairs, and spray painting. This peculiar property has two owners, one being government and the other private.

On the opposite of this property, there is a vacant stand at the corner of Ruby Street and Verona roads. The stand is used for church services and there are complaints from communities regarding the noise emanating from there. Illegal dumping on this vacant piece of land is an enormous issue. Some vagrants have begun occupying this stand for accommodation purposes.

The substation on Verona Road belongs to City Power, however, despite numerous complaints and escalation to the management of the station, it remains an eyesore.

To limit access into the substation, the business forum put up a fence and locked the doors to the station, however, the keys to the gate are in possession of City Power, which limits entry into the substation. Gaining access to the inside area of the station will allow the forum to maintain and clean the station so it does not look like an abandoned or neglected building.

Involvement is crucial

The business forum would appreciate it if Johannesburg Road Agency and City Power could get involved and renew all the road markings in the area including street names and replace all the dysfunctional street lights as crime usually takes place in un-illuminated areas. Replacement of old stormwater drains and those that have caved in on Main Street will be highly appreciated.

Most of the sidewalks have been left unattended and water meters are in disrepair. On the other hand, several manhole covers that have been stolen have not been replaced.

There also seems to be a terrible smell of a mixture of gases emanating from the stormwater drains which seems to be associated with a gas leak in the pipelines or the smell of gas from sewerage breakdown (hydrogen sulphide or sewer gas). This needs to be investigated immediately.

On the corner of Main and Ferreira streets where EBK Motors building was recently demolished, its contents were stolen overnight by huge groups of people in the presence of police officials. What prompted this type of action and behaviour is unclear. Vagrants have already started to occupy the property as illegal dumping seems to have already started taking place.

There are properties on Main Street that have illegal drainage connections. Water pipes from the salons and other shops have been channelled onto the street.

There should be an approved plan in place that indicates the drainage plan for each of these little shops next to each other. This illegal connection is contributing to an occurrence of an environmental hazard occurring in the near future.

Problems on Main Street

Based on the walk-through on Main Street, awareness of the implications of littering and illegal dumping seems to be non-existent. On every street corner, there seems to be a heap of rubbish.

People no longer dispose of their garbage in bins but instead, leave the waste to pile outside bins. Poor and improper waste management promote habitat for pests and rodents.

Information dissemination and law enforcement need to be enforced to prevent such occurrences.

It goes without saying that ‘the recreational sports facilities in the South must be among the best in the country.’ It is a pity to let it deteriorate so rapidly as with the parks.

Some people within the business forum have spent a lot of money from their own pockets to keep the parks clean. They have also set up meetings with the council to uplift the parks, however, little or no support has been received in this regard.

Increase in illegal trade

The municipality needs to look into working collaboratively with SARS during their regular operations in the area. There seems to be an increase in illegal trade and immediate intervention is required. The intention is not for thriving businesses to be closed but instead for everyone to be part of the tax register. The municipality should look at having joint operations to test the validity of electrical and water connections in buildings.

Main Street has on both the right and left side several businesses and two schools, the parking provided on the street has been frequented by trucks compare to any other motorists.

These truck drivers have been causing a huge problem for the businesses and community, most of the trucks are not roadworthy, some drivers don’t possess a driver’s license, and there are no toilet facilities present so the drivers resort to using Rosettenville Central Primary School wall to urinate, loud music is played throughout the day by them disrupting the school, the trucks are there early in the morning and parents have no place to park their vehicles thus causing huge unnecessary traffic.

Several joint operations have been carried out to remove them yet they continue to occupy this spot on an ongoing basis.

Intervention needed

SAPS and JMPD are two huge entities that have to work collaboratively to tackle crime, traffic and bylaw contraventions in communities.

There are illegal slaughtering and the sale of live animals for consumption purposes and this can only be conducted by an approved abattoir.

The Department of Agriculture and Rural Development is the only department that has the power to stop this activity from taking place and prosecute the people that are not complying with their rules and regulations.

It is not known where these traders obtain the chicken supplies from, they could be grown in the backyards of people and on-farm plots that are not monitored.

This means that an inspector is not present to conduct ante-mortem nor post-mortem inspections and should a disease emerge, the control of its spread could be an extremely difficult task.

These are recommendations that were deduced from the walkthrough

• Intersectoral collaboration – none of the issues discussed above will ever be tackled if there is no teamwork. It has been noted that departments and entities are always ready to pass on the blame to each other and no one is ready to handle the issues singlehandedly nor together.

• Some of the issues identified cannot be sorted by the ground staff or field workers’ intervention is required from upper management. For instance, the stormwater drains need attention but the underground pipes that are several years old need to be renewed so that they can handle the weight of the stormwater and the run-off from heavy downpours.

• There seems to be a lack of understanding or awareness of littering and its effects on the environment. At times even if education is prevalent, enforcement seems to be the issue. Laws are in place to fine/summon people who are littering and dumping illegally, visibility and measures to curb such behaviour should be implemented by conducting regular operations.

• Pikitup has a huge issue on hand, even though there is a lack of education and awareness on littering and dumping, there are insufficient bins on the street. Most of the garbage is deposited or has accumulated in the stormwater drains causing an obstruction when heavy rains occur.

• Small shops that are situated next to each other need joint operations conducted and bylaw enforcement by council officials. Poor drainage, illegal connections, fire hazards, sale and slaughtering of live animals, poor waste management, substandard infrastructure and unkempt conditions both inside and outside the shops need urgent intervention. And once again it’s not just an environmental health or building control or fire department problem, it’s a whole lot of issues that require various stakeholder collaboration to tackle.

• Main Street has as open manholes, broken pavements and caved-in stormwater drains that could make the city face lawsuits or bring dishonour should an accident or incident occur. It is advised that these issues be sorted immediately. It is better than sitting with a lawsuit for an exorbitant amount on something that could have been avoided.

• Dates, timelines and the relevant person’s details need to be attached to each issue identified so that it is tackled within a certain timeframe.

“We do believe that the South is being neglected by the council however we wish to assure the council of our support and hopefully as a team, we can achieve success in our area that we regard as ‘a gateway to the South’. We remain committed to the upliftment of the South. ‘If Joburg works, South Africa works’,” noted the Southern Business Community Forum.