Peaceable solution sought to loud music
The community of Sterkspruit can look forward to weekends of peace and quiet again, if everything goes according to the promises made.
This follows a complaint by farmers and guest house owners in the area about loud music being played over weekends at a shebeen on the Sijabulile Primary School property. According to the complainants, the music starts on a Friday and continues non-stop until Sunday evening.
Titus Mkumbane, the school’s headmaster, said he was not aware of any loud music on the premises. “I visit the community on our property regularly and I have never experienced any loud music from them.” He is, however, willing to admit that the music might be played when he is not present.
Michael Sibiya, the security guard, readily admits that he plays music over weekends. “But I never play later than 22:00. Sometimes the owners of Die Stoor (the nearby wedding venue) ask me to turn it down, which I do with pleasure. But those people in the village play a lot of music and they have a shebeen there.”
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The village consists of farmworker houses and informal dwellings in the far corner of the school property. “The school premises once belonged to a farmer who donated it to the Department of Education in 2000. The village people are the descendants of the farmworkers who lived on the land at that time,” Mkumbane said. “Let me call one of them and find out what the problem is.”
Lwazi Khumalo is a bus driver for the school and a community leader. He immediately admitted that they run a shebeen and play loud music. A neighbouring farmer, however, confronted them, and they promised to not play loud music anymore.
“But let’s go to the wedding venue and promise them as well,” Mkumbane reacted.
The owners of Die Stoor was not there, but Khumalo and Albert Gwebo, an elder in the community, solemnly promised to put an end to the noise coming from the shebeen.
Mkumbane said he wants to arrange a community meeting to bring back harmony to Sterkspruit again. “We need the community to support our school, which is battling financially, and we cannot afford to estrange them,” he said.
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