LETTER: Fireworks: Police where were you?
On New Year’s Eve it started to sound like a war zone in my area with fireworks going off regularly from around 20:00. Where were the police?
• Deryn Venski writes:
The News ran a wonderful article online in December about how businesses in Krugersdorp North were investigated and fireworks were confiscated. In this same article was a warning to other businesses who were selling fireworks illegally, as well as a warning to those who were planning on discharging fireworks.
The public was told in this article that if they had concerns or wished to report the illegal use of fireworks to contact the police, and both the emergency number and the Krugersdorp Police Station numbers were given. This article was applauded by many pet owners like myself who every New Year have to battle to keep their pets calm, spend money on medication, and, many times, have to take their pets to the vet for attention after the pet has injured itself trying to get away from the noise.
Here is what actually happened:
On New Year’s Eve it started to sound like a war zone in my area with fireworks going off regularly from around 20:00. I immediately secured my pets indoors. (This does not help as they still go ballistic and you have to physically hold them.)
Once my pets were indoors I contacted the local police station on the number provided in your article. The lady who answered said that I was mistaken and it was not against the law to discharge fireworks and that I must just keep my pets indoors.
I then read the Gauteng Provincial Gazette vol 14 no 309 dated 18 November concerning fireworks to her, as it stands in your article. I was told that it was outdated and wrong, but she would send a car to patrol the area. Needless to say that never happened that I could see.
I then phoned the emergency number as given in the article only to be shouted at, saying that this was not an emergency (the reason I phoned the station first), I was wasting their time, and that I should be more tolerant.
Is this really how this works where the mayor gives warnings and makes promises to the public but the police force does not back him up?
I usually praise the police but this time I say their conduct is disgusting. I know there are many who will say I need to take a ‘chill pill’ but I know many pet owners and animal lovers who were in the same boat.
