Not a beautiful noise: Noise pollution continuing in Mbombela

MBOMBELA – Local community members are up in arms as a result of the continuous noise pollution in the city and the lack of by-law enforcement that should deal with it. According to various community members, they are fed up and ready to take the law into their own hands.

Residents in certain areas of the city have complained for months that they are woken up or prevented from sleeping due to extreme noise levels in the middle of the night. The majority of complaints come from Sonheuwel and West Acres. Most recently residents of Steiltes and Stonehenge added their voices to the complaints.

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Resident, Niel Smit has been complaining about noise pollution since 2009. According to him nothing has been done, it has even gotten worse, because people saw that they can make noise without being reprimanded. “If one person does this without the law being enforced, everybody thinks they can do so,” Smit said.

Another community member, Eric Hen-Boisen, said he felt helpless against the noisy assault. “It feels as though my hands are cut off completely. We believe the noise is coming from complexes close to us, but we cannot identify it.” DA ward councillor, Tersia Marshall is a part of the committee which was established by the Community Police Forum (CPF) recently in an attempt to eradicate noise pollution. They have identified suspected culprits, but are powerless to act.

According to Marshall, the City of Mbombela Local Municipality, which is tasked with enforcing the by-laws, is not providing her with any feedback regarding the noise pollution.”Citizens are now also losing their faith in me as I have to tell this to them every single time they complain,” Marshall said.

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“From where it was only two or three complaints on a weekend, I now receive up to eight complaints every weekend and that is only in my ward,” Marshall said. Marshall did not want to make the names of the culprits public as of yet, fearing that it might weaken a case the committee is attempting to build against these institutions.

“What I can say is that the complaints get more frequent when certain institutions have parties, and that we have identified culprits situated in the city centre,” Marshall said. She said that she often receives phone calls at 03:00 on Saturdays from people complaining of the noise.

The new municipal by-laws that were proposed are also still not in place. “They are at the prosecutors, who need to ensure that they will be able to prosecute suspects on the new laws. These laws were supposed to be at the council by the end of October,” Marshall said.

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Another member of the CPF committee, Past TJ Maré, said he has seen a draft copy of the new by-laws. According to him, nothing but the geographical boundaries of the enforcement of the laws has changed. “The municipality is using this as a defence for not enforcing the by-laws,” Maré said.

According to him, a lot of people seem to think that enforcing these rules is the responsibility of the SAPS. “It, however, is not. It only becomes their problem when the equipment that is used to make the noise needs to be confiscated,” Maré said. For him the issuing of licences for the selling of alcohol and noise pollution go hand in hand.

“We as a community will strongly oppose the issuing of licences until people start realising that alcohol directly contributes to the amount of noise that is made,” he added, calling alcohol “noise juice”. He emphasised that it was a matter of being good citizens and respecting those around you.

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Marshall added, “People’s rights are being infringed upon, and they feel that the municipality does not give any feedback on how they will tackle it.”Marshall strongly urged residents to lodge complaints with the committee. They can do so by phoning her on 082-576-8889.

The City of Mbombela Local Municipality spokesman, Joseph Ngala, did not respond to Lowvelder’s questions at the time of going to press.