Complaints over Mbombela noise pollution fall on deaf ears

The sudden flare-up of earsplitting music in Mbombela until the early hours of the morning has residents fuming again. Last week, Lowvelder reported that the City of Mbombela’s (CoM) spokesperson, Joseph Ngala, said by-laws against noise pollution are in place. The public may call and lay a complaint and by-law officers will handle the matter accordingly.

“I would like to encourage community members to report such things with the exact location so that we can deal with the noisemakers. However, we will not act on hearsay. People must provide facts,” he said.

One resident, Gerrit van Wyk, decided to put this to the test. According to him, due to the CoM offices being closed at the time, he reverted to the Nelspruit Police Station to press charges, giving the exact location as requested.

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“The police promised to go to the location where the loud music came from. They even gave me their phone number so I could contact them if the noise persisted. But they did not attend to the matter, as the noise lasted until 04:00,” he said.

Another resident, Ethan Deval, said he is forced to take his children out of Mbombela in order for them to study without any disturbance of loud music.

“My children are in grades 11 and 12, and they struggle to study or even do their homework after 20:00 on weekends. So I have to take them to White River every weekend so that they can study in peace, ” he said.

Upon further enquiry, Ngala said the law enforcement unit does not just deal with noise pollution, but a wide range of transgressions, and not just in the city centre, but throughout the regions of the city.

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“People must appreciate the fact that there’s a wide area to cover with limited resources. Our call centre is operating 24 hours,” he said. Numerous residents have reported to have phoned the number provided, but to no avail. The call centre numbers are 013 759 9301/2/3/5/6/7/8.

A provincial police spokesperson, Col Donald Mdhluli, said the police are primarily mandated on matters related to crime. “By-laws are handled by the municipality. They have law enforcement teams to deal with noise pollution,” he said. “The community members can call the police for assistance as we work hand-in-hand with their law enforcement agencies.”

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