Stairway has become dangerous

Ballito had been our holiday destination for about 20 years and for the past 10 years we are residents.

We are proud of our town and therefore feel very embarassed if someone criticises it.

However if something needs to be improved, we need to bring it to the attention of someone who will do something to improve the situation.

I see the steps in the alley that links the downtown businesses to the streets on the hill are being rebuilt after being washed away last year.

This is a well known feature of Ballito, but unfortunately the part of the alleyway between Sandra Rd and Minerva Rd has become a gathering place for loiterers.

Every day, if it does not rain, at lunch time and after 4:40pm, they congregate and amidst loud shouting and raucous laughter they smoke dagga and drink beer etc.

They break bottles and litter the place with plastic and paper. What should be an attractive walkway for tourists has become a dangerous, filthy path.

Another issue is that, what should be an area where people can safely enjoy restaurants and night clubs, has become the playground of drunken and drugged individuals, swearing and shouting, while they amuse themselves with others having street races with hot cars and motor bikes from late evening up to 4:00 in the morning.

That is Sandra Rd in the vicinity of Mojos. Surely there are laws that prohibit this kind of behaviour?

At the end of the day all these unsatisfactory conditions are pulling Ballito down and deter investors and tourists.

On Tuesday November 25 our power went off at about 4:40pm.

Thinking that it might be yet another power shedding, we did not complain until we realised that our building was the only one in the area without power.

I got hold of the electricity control room at 8:30pm. They assured me that they would send an electrician out.

This did not happen. At 5:40 the following morning I phoned again and I was promised the same.

By 7:36am I phoned again and only at 8:30am the electrician turned up.

He found that the municipal distribution board servicing our property had been broken into and the power switched off.

He switched on the power and promised to bring locks to secure the box.

This morning, at 6:30am the power went off again.

I went to the box myself and found both doors still wide open without locks. I switched the power on and took photographs of the box.

I tried to phone the control room, but no one answered the phone. Eventually I phoned the fire dept. who promised to contact the electricity dept.

PIET STEENKAMP

Ballito