EDITOR – Lahee Park, as I understand it, was left as a public place to the residents of Pinetown.
I have lived in a street removed from it for ages. My kids grew up and played safely there.
During all those years it has regularly been the venue for countless community events, from hockey tournaments to political meetings, many of them accompanied by loudspeaker announcements with music to keep the audience entertained.
Nobody complained because that’s what the park is for – public use.
The so-called Pinetown Fantasia was different. Its function was to make money. Not for Pinetown or the park, but for the organisers. So trodden down fences, the subject of fruitless neighbourhood security concerns for years and years, were miraculously reinforced in time to keep out all but the customers.
The ‘music’? Hours of high volume rap. For those who don’t know rap, it consisted of a harangue of shouted lyrics (very intrusive), against a relentless background beat, provided by an amplified dial-a-beat instrument. Loud.
Around 10pm on Saturday evening, the small turnout had all but fizzled, and all that could be heard were some loud, drunken voices in the dark.
If the proceeds all went to improve the park, or for some Pinetown charity, it would be worth putting up with for the greater good. But no. Even the fence ‘reinforcements’ all went away again straight afterwards.
Lahee Park is for Pinetown’s residents, who pay for its upkeep, not for impresarios and entrepreneurs, who don’t.
Mike Timms
Pinetown
