Residents concerned about the state of Queen Street

A public meeting for Ward 118 was held on August 19 in Kensington to address issues pertaining to Queen Street.

Residents have expressed their concerns over the urban decaying of the area.

Also read: Business owners in Queen Street, Kensington, petition for change

Issues on the agenda were power outages, liquor licenses, street lights, late trading hours, water leaks and road resurfacing.

Also read: Kensington residents clean Queen Street

Some residents who attended the meeting expressed disappointment as the SAPS, Johannesburg Roads Agency and Joburg Water were not present.

Residents are concerned about the liquor outlets that keep on mushrooming in the area.

Also read: Keeping Kensington clean

They wanted to understand how these liquor licenses are even getting approved by the Liquor Board.

Aaron Masina from Gauteng Liquor Board said they are aware of the issues of liquor outlets mushrooming everywhere.

“As the liquor licensing board our business is issuing licenses and after we have issued them we monitor if holders are abiding by the rules and the only way we can be aware of holders breaking the law is if the public reports them. If a person has no license and claims he has the letter that says he has been granted licenses, that letter does not serve as a license. He must wait until he has a license in order to trade. If you don’t have a license you are operating illegally and that becomes a police matter,” said Masina.

Also read: Public meeting for Buckingham Road concerns

He said residents have the right to object to applications but it must be done so within 21 days after the notice has been put up to inform the residents of such an application.

“But it is also difficult for residents to object if they have not seen the notice. It is supposed to be advertised in a local newspaper but some applicants can advertise in papers they know people in that area do not read. That is cheating but the board has not put systems in place to deal with such issues,” he explained.

He said education on how the liquor license board works is still needed in the community in order for the public to know how to object to more alcohol outlets being opened.

Another matter that was raised was the number of big trucks using Queen Street as a shortcut to Malvern.

Residents are concerned that the trucks are damaging the road and asked the metro police to intervene in the matter.

Metro police cluster commander, Ellias Phasa, said they operate within the national road traffic act.

“The law does not allow us to prevent trucks to come into residential areas. We can only intervene if the trucks are an obstruction and cause traffic. Trucks are not allowed to park in residential areas but if they are passing through, it is not a problem,” explained Phasha.

He said they will monitor the truck activity in the area and if they are breaking any bylaws a fine will be issued.

Malvern residents were not pleased with the direction of the meeting because it only addressed Queen Street issues and not Ward 118 as a whole.

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Malvern residents are concerned about the level of crime and drug trafficking happening in the area.

They are also concerned about street hawkers blocking the pavements, forcing people to walk on the road.

Phasha said they are aware of the challenges in Jules Street and they are busy with an operation that will address such issues.

“We are going to remove illegal hawkers from Jules street. It’s an ongoing problem that will not get resolved overnight. It’s challenging even for us as metro police because when the hawkers see us coming they run away, ” said Phasha.

On the issue of drug trafficking, he said the community needs to assist them in identifying the suppliers.

“We have undercover patrols happening in the area. We are trying to identify hotspots and also need the public to share information in order to catch the suppliers,” said Phasha.

He said drugs are a major problem in the city and it will take some time to clean them up but community members should not get discouraged or stop reporting if they see activities in their area.

Also read: 3 children run down and 1 of them killed in Malvern

Speeding motorists in Malvern were raised as a child was recently killed by a speeding motorist and another child was critically injured.

“We request speeding bumps to be installed because the motorists don’t treat the area as a residential area. When children play in the streets, motorists are still speeding as if they are on the freeway,” said one concerned resident.

Councillor Neuren Pieterson said another meeting will be called to address the number of issues in Malvern.

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