Letter: Awful big bangs

Rae Dengler of Salt Rock wants big bangs stopped: A few years ago, a small group of concerned animal owners launched a public notice campaign to inform Dolphin Coast visitors and residents of our existing bylaws concerning fireworks.

The campaign drastically reduced the indiscriminate use of fireworks over the holiday period. In recent years the nights leading up to, and for an excruciating prolonged period on, New Year’s Eve, residents and petrified animals are now subjected to the unnecessary BIGGEST BANG possible fiasco.

Whether these large ‘bomb’ fireworks are set as a public display of financial excess or as a means to compensate for another inadequacy is unclear, but what IS clear is that the instigators of these big bang fireworks have little comprehension for the consequences of their behaviour and flagrantly flout our laws. It is prohibited to buy fireworks larger than 50mm in length or 12 mm in diameter in South Africa so culprits should be charged hefty fines or face jail for possession of contraband goods.

KwaDukuza bylaws state, “It shall be unlawful for any person to use or explode any fireworks (i) within 500m of any explosives magazine, explosives factory, petroleum depot or gas meter; or (ii) in any building or on any public thoroughfare.”

In effect, fireworks on our public beaches are actually illegal. Firing of fireworks is only legal after midnight December 31, so the early ejectors should also pay penalty fines. New Delhi, India and a remote town such as Collecchio, Italy, recognise the stupidity of noisy fireworks (the pretty lights effect do not need a bang) and have successfully banned them.

Hopefully South Africans will eventually come to a similar education?

In the interim, we can come together to lobby for their ban in our town:

• Address the issue by letter to Councillor Malcom Hubner at the Salt Rock municipal offices.
• Holiday letting agencies should CLEARLY notify their clients of existing bylaws in formal letting documentation over the December period to educate all visitors and reduce illegal firework activities.
• An official municipal poster campaign on lampposts over Diwali and December holiday periods would go a long way to educate residents of firework restrictions. Officers are overwhelmed by callouts in multiple areas over this time.

For the most part, people fire these fireworks without thought for the real consequences.

Pet owners witness the degree of enormous stress the bangs have on animals while few realise the level of harm done in the wild too.

Most will voluntarily stop once you explain the effect their ‘fun’ is having on the environment and for those with big egos and small brains who insist on continuing?

I believe hefty fines to match the financial excess they are so keen to display so publicly will supplement our KwaDukuza Emergency Services nicely!