City fails to respond to noise complaints

A North Beach resident, fed up with the noise in Durban, has tried for months to get the municipality to respond to his complains with little success.

According to Mahmood Vawda, it has been more than four months since he first started writing to the eThekwini Municipality in an attempt to get them to enforce bylaws to reduce noise levels.

“Sadly I have not had a single response from any of those emailed. I have urged the municipality to comply with the Constitution, Acts, laws and by-laws regulating noise pollution, as the City has failed time and again to honour most, if not all, of its commitments to its very own IDP, and failed to create a sustainably managed city that satisfies the constitutional and legislative objects of eThekwini Municipality,'” said Vawda.

Vawda said he had first written to the Municipality in 2003 and since then has written to officials in many departments in every cluster of the city administration.

“I have had extremely disappointing responses at most times. When I did get the rare responses, they displayed a total lack of caring for law, professionalism, inter-departmental cooperation and knowledge of responsibilities within departments and within clusters. This municipality so blatantly falls foul of legislation such as the Municipal Systems Act, I find it sad that it continues to receive accolades, awards and prizes,” he said.

He said noise resulted from taxis and other sources including other motor vehicles, events, residences, businesses and citizens, either singly or in groups.

Ward councillor, Martin Meyer, said: “I agree that the city is one of the worst violators of its own bylaws. It remains a problem as the city becomes the maker of the rule, the breaker of the rule, and the enforcer of the rule. Metro refuses to act against city events, as the city seems to think they are above the law. I am putting a motion in to council to ask the council to vote that the city must adhere to the bylaws of the the city. Unfortunately it was not added to the current Council agenda as it was a budget meeting, but hopefully it will be on the next one.”