Court denies protestors picket permission
Residents of South Durban were angered that their application to picket outside Greyville Racecourse on Saturday was turned down.
A GROUP of concerned residents were disappointed after they were denied permission to protest outside Greyville Racecourse on Saturday, 4 July.
According to Des D'Sa from the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance (SDCEA), the court did not rule in favour of environmentalists and residents of South Durban who wanted to protest the sale, by Gold Circle, of the Clairwood Racecourse.
“We wanted to express our disappointment and anger since Gold Circle sold the Clairwood Racecourse site without public consultation to Capital Property Fund. These developers intend on turning the site into a warehousing and logistics park with almost 2 000 more trucks per hour on community roads where people commute daily especially schoolgoing kids. We feel that Gold Circle should have consulted the community because the impact to health and well-being, safety for the community, and the environmental and social makeup of this area will be destroyed all in the name of profit,” said D'Sa.
He said even though the group's intentions were of no harm, but were simply to raise awareness and bring to the attention of Gold Circle how the community feels, the judge ruled in favour of the city.
“The judge deemed her ruling on the fact that we had applied late for the permit to protest. According to the Section 4 of the Gatherings Act, we need 48 hours to notify authorities and furnish sound reasons. We are appalled at this decision as this was supposed to be a demonstration to express the concerns of the people of South Durban, raise awareness of the destruction of the Clairwood Racecourse site and to gain support from a wider audience peacefully.This decision in our opinion has undermined our constitutional right,” he said.
D'Sa said the SDCEA would not allow this setback to affect their right to express their concerns and would continue to work harder for the only green space left in South Durban, the Clairwood Racecourse site.
Gold Circle CEO, Michel Nairac said the company sold Clairwood Racecourse to Capital Property Fund in 2012 and at the time of sale the property was zoned Open Green Space by the municipality.
“After purchase, Capital Property Fund applied to the municipality for the property to be re-zoned which was granted in due course. Gold Circle was never involved and had nothing to do with the re-zoning of the property,” said Nairac.
Commenting on the planned picket of Greyville Racecourse by the South Durban Community Environmental Alliance on Saturday, Nairac said: “The right to picket is entirely a matter for the Metro Police and has nothing to do with Gold Circle.”
