EMPANGENI residents in Paul Street who are losing sleep owing to unruly intoxicated people and the playing of loud music in cars at the 5Ways Mall parking lot, have had enough.
According to a number of irate residents, patrons of The Waves Sports Café are drinking, revving cars and playing loud music until five o’clock in the mornings, disturbing residents and preventing sleep.
A letter received from the unhappy residents dated 20 April claims the issue has been raised with the security company at the mall, the police, uMhlathuze Municipality as well as Wave Sports Café owners, but nothing has been done to manage the patrons partying outside the bar area.
‘They stand on the first level outside the bar shouting, screaming and singing at the top of their voices,’ one angry resident wrote in the letter.
One of Wave Sports Café’s owners, Quinton McLean, said when the café hosted a big event and a large crowd was expected, the owners contact the SAPS and informed them of the event to prevent unruly behaviour.
‘On a number of occasions the police have arrived to warn the people to stop disobeying the law. Arrests have been made and we as a business do not promote illegal activities on our premises,’ said McLean.
While Waves Sports Café has a valid liquor licence and complies with all the rules and regulation, McLean said they had no jurisdiction in the public parking area outside the café.
McLean said he personally has gone into the parking lot on many occasions to ask for the noise levels to be lowered, but was only laughed at and even threatened.
‘We have a maximum of two big events a month and on those days we hire extra security just to patrol the parking area. Unfortunately, when somebody refuses to comply with the bylaws, we can do very little about it besides calling the police.’
‘Last week after we had closed the café and were cleaning up, a motorist turned into the parking lot and was racing around, spinning his tyres and blasting his music.
‘We tried to stop him and tell him to leave and one of my employees was almost driven over in the process.
‘We have gone back to the SAPS after receiving these letters of complaint and have a meeting set up with them on Thursday. We don’t want to disturb the locals, but we still have to attract a crowd to keep our doors open and our staff employed,’ said McLean.
