THE concept of a city without walls is foreign and almost insanity in the face of South Africa's high crime statistics, yet a public debate held at DUT's Engineering and the Built Environment Faculty on Tuesday evening showed that it was exactly what many community members longed for.
Solid high walls have over the past decades become a part of the accepted landscape of our suburbs as a direct response to increased fear of growing crime.
Professor Monique Marks, a criminologist and research professor within DUT's Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment who hosted the event said it was aimed at getting the public talking about the value of walls and whether they offer the protection that was needed. “The idea is breaking down walls and not barriers of safety.” Marks gave an example of Latino America where everyone had porches and through these porches there was no separation between street and home. “You could chat to people walking in the street and neighbours know each other and are aware of comings and goings. This may be far out from us in SA, but those porches were the centre of the community. I just like to question why we think the walls make us safe,” she added.
Chris Overall of Metro Police and Safer Cities said the high walls were actually a hindrance to a crime scene. “Most police officers will race over to a scene but poor lighting and a high wall make it very difficult for an assessment of the scene. Jumping over a high wall becomes an operational hazard and this puts the officer at a huge risk, they could get shot because the scene is environmentally loaded against them. By cutting out the natural surveillance the officer can walk into what started as a burglary which could quickly escalate to a house break-in and hostage situation. High walls are a policeman's worst nightmare!”
Brian Jackson, Operations Manager at Blue Security and Martin Kriel Managing Director of ADT on the East Coast agreed with Overall, stating in presentations that low walls were better to ensure natural surveillance.
“There is a huge risk for a reaction officer at a high wall. If he jumps over and breaks a leg or sprains an ankle he can';t be of any help to you in your time of need. In these incidents, time is of the essence and split second decisions need to be made as they could mean life or death.”
“In the medieval days walls represented security, nobody could get in or out but this to me in the modern South African concept represents prison. “Ask yourself, if you were a perpetrator, how would you get into your property. I think big boundary walls are something we need to re-think. In our experience, there are a lot more community members patrolling in neighbourhood watches than criminals, but the main problem they find is they can't see through the big boundary walls!
Architect Doung Jahnageer, of Dala Artarchitecture for social change, said he had come out of the school of architecture where big high walls were part of a house. “This shouldn't be, because it creates a physical divide and also creates the divides inside your home. Its basically an architecture of fear.”
“The walls imprison and dehumanise us. Fear is a psychological thing, walls bring barriers in our heads so we don't have to look outside. We need to re-humanise ourselves and re-focus on whether the wall unite of divide us as people,” he said.
