Public parks becoming a nuisance
Noise, littering, social distancing, and the fact that the visitors use open space as public toilets have residents all over the city fuming.
Public parks in eMalahleni are becoming a throbbing headache for residents.
Noise, littering, social distancing, and the fact that the visitors use the open space as public toilets have residents all over the city fuming.
SEE THE VIDEO HERE: this is how people spend their afternoons in the park adjacent to Tinus de Jongh Street. No social distancing is observed.
Despite that the parks are not kept clean by the municipality, this just adds more frustration to the residents living in close vicinity of the parks.
“We can’t sleep. The music coming from cars parked in the parks keeps us awake until the early hours of the morning. Then there are people using the parks as public toilets and others doing things that should be done behind closed doors,” a resident who remains anonymous in fear of intimidation said.
WITBANK NEWS took a drive to Klipfontein Dam to find out why the popular hangout is closed for the public.
The answer came from former councillor Ms Naritha Naudu who in December last year was very vocal about the use of the park adjacent to Klipfontein Dam when residents complained of hordes of people flocking to the park to party amidst Covid-19 regulations.
“Thousands of litres of purified water are being wasted because of a burst pipe at the Klipfontein Dam. I am certain that it’s been like that for a long time because if you have a look at the grass around, you can see it is super green. It’s one of the reasons as to why the municipality is refusing to open the dam and would rather have the people mess around at the Klipfontein Park,” she said.
Emalahleni Local Municipality’s spokesperson Mr Lebo Mofokeng in a media statement on March 8 appealed to residents to conserve water.
“The Witbank Dam is currently sitting on an average level of 97% due to the plentiful rainfalls this season. However, the municipality is restricted by the Water Use License to abstract a certain limit of raw water volumes daily, it is therefore very crucial to conserve the limited purified water to save Emalahleni not to face drought as we approach the dry season,” he said.
WITBANK NEWS posted these questions to Mofokeng, are public parks been attended to with grass cutting, cutting of low branches on trees for safety reasons? How much has been allocated for the upkeep of public parks? What happened to the fence around King George’s Park? What is been done about the groups of people gathering in public parks over weekends with no intention to adhere to Covid-19 measures?
He responded, “The fence around King George’s Park was removed to avoid it being stolen while there is an arrangement with the National Heritage Council to assist with a proper fencing that is relevant to heritage sites.”
He said with regard to people gathering at parks the local law enforcement unit normally does rounds there.
“No-one is doing any rounds at the park opposite Thinus de Jongh Street. We are constantly complaining and reaching out to local law agencies, but our problem seems insignificant even with a third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic threatening to hit again,” the anonymous resident said.
Residents in the Klipfontein Dam area echoed what the anonymous resident said.
READ MORE
King George Park still a problem
https://www.citizen.co.za/witbank-news/125562/king-georges-park-still-problem/
The big park problem
https://www.citizen.co.za/witbank-news/121996/big-park-problem/
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