‘Police need to take noise disturbance calls seriously’

Sir
Today’s (March 12) incident in Coronation Park, and the local Police’s response refers.
The article in the Courier of last week stated, and I quote: “The SAPS and Traffic Police have all been involved in the discussions to ensure that ‘everyone is on the same page’, Mr Padayachee said.”
A call to the police station just after 1pm today (Sunday) quickly proved that this is not the case, and the same female police officer who shouted at me the last time that the police do not respond to these calls, again told me that it is too early to complain. She very clearly was not aware of the law in this kind of complaint, and even less of the arrangement the municipal manager spoke about.
This is an ongoing battle to get local law enforcement to protect us against these open-air parties and blasting noise in the park almost every afternoon, and definitely every weekend. The shift members adopt a threatening attitude every time when one of us phone about the never-ending drunken disturbances and the concomitant noise, and I have even been shouted at in my own yard by a sergeant who told me that I had no right to complain about people enjoying themselves.
We, apparently, do not have the right to live in peace, and to be protected against criminal elements.
Ever since the days when the late Sham Perumal of the municipality was involved with this problem, he told me that the police are not doing their job. It is definitely a fruitless exercise to phone Dundee Police when you have drunken disturbances next to your property, as they simply do not answer their phones, or they turn on you if they deign to arrive on the scene. I do not even want to know what will happen if one of us residents round this iniquitous park should really need their assistance one day.
Below please find an abridged copy of my letter to the municipality, of which I have had no response yet:
This issue had merely been handed over to local law enforcement, which had been largely incapable of dealing with it, and I am sorry to say that the local police station is abysmally ignorant of regulations governing noise disturbance and noise nuisance. They have simply ignored the problem, and in more than one case, have intimidated residents who complained about their lack of action.
When S Ngobese had been our ward town councillor, he came to our partial rescue by blocking off the largest part of Coronation Park with bollards. This prevented vehicle entrance to that part, but for reasons beyond our knowledge, he had been stopped from doing anything else. He had signs erected on all sides of Coronation Park, spelling out the rules in all applicable languages, but to no avail. Even the local police ignore those signs. No other councillor had bothered to help us, and we do not even know who our current councillor is now.
The result of this had been that all the impromptu mobile street parties had been pushed into the only part of Coronation Park that is open to vehicular traffic, and that is the part bordered by Coronation and McKenzie streets. We are now requesting that this part be blocked off to vehicular traffic as well.
We are also requesting that the road entrance into the park, behind the taxi rank in McKenzie Street, also be blocked off, as the Donga bar and sports facility can also be reached from Victoria Street, or Coronation Street, for that matter.
This point had been one of the main obstacles in reaching a solution for this problem.
I want to stress here that the daily taxi traffic is a small part of the problem. Many of the problem makers are from out of town, and it is more often than not, vehicles from outside Dundee that are the problem here. We would just like to have the red stripe in front of my house repainted as well. We see all the street painting has been done, but this red curb had not been repainted yet, and the front of my house, and yard, is now turning into a litter heap.
In terms of section 25 of the Act, the Minister of Environmental Affairs and Tourism is empowered to make regulations regarding noise, and the powers of provincial and local authorities to control noise prevention, reduction or elimination. As such, we look to the National Noise Control Regulations.
These regulations give local authorities extensive powers to regulate noise. I also want to stress, sir, that it is of absolutely no use to contact the local police, as us residents are often verbally abused by police officers for racism and lack of knowledge as far as their “procedures” are concerned, especially after hours, when these officers almost seem to make up their own laws as far as noise nuisance is concerned.
It is an even more futile exercise to ask party-goers to tone down their excessive noise, and any attempts thereto had almost ended in people getting hurt.These actions are impacting on our right to enjoy our own lives in peace and quiet, and we would really like to see the municipality take some form of action against this in 2017.
Johann Hamman