Ongoing enforcement needed, says Umbilo Business Forum

THE Umbilo Business Forum (UBF) is once again calling on the municipality and police for better service delivery in the lower Umbilo/Congella area.

Member of the UBF, Ian Campbell-Gillies, said there is distinct disintegration of law and order and structured withdrawal from standards of service and safety delivery for Umbilo businesses and residents.

He said water drainage system blockages to support the wet cardboard industry and the lack of policing of heavy traffic damaging drains in Gale and Sydney Roads was a concern.

He said more action was needed to control the taxi industry operating in the Dalton area.

According to Campbell-Gillies, taxi operators drive contraflow during rush hour traffic in sections of the busy Sydney Road. W

hat’s more the UBF member said car washers were utilising drain water with taxis parked on pavements and numerous incidents of speeding through red robots on the city’s south bound route, particularly at the Alan Paton aqueduct robot.

ALSO READ: UBF efforts to clean up Congella need municipal input

Campbell-Gillies believes speed bumps would solve the escalating problem. “Attempts by Metro to control the situation have proved fruitless,” he said.

He said this ‘abandonment of law and order’ directly led to the death of local businessman Martin Somerville on 8 February at the intersection of Sydney and Alan Paton Roads in Umbilo.

UBF meets with Umbilo SAPS

Recently six UBF members along with hostel leader and UBF special member Steve Thusi hosted a meeting with Col Teddy Munusamy and Stanley Perumal from Umbilo SAPS, along with CPF chairperson Heather Roos.

Campbell-Gillies said discussions were held around the issue of providing food support to the homeless and the continued robbery by gangs.

This led to the agreement to pursue immediate arrest and prosecution of gang members.

“Subsequent discussion was around the use of men from the hostel to stand street guard on a paid basis or to use camera tracking and armed response. In the event a special SAPS task team was set up in conjunction with a WhatsApp group of UBF members and this has resulted in three arrests to stem the tide of gang crime in broad daylight in the Dalton area,” he said.

Campbell-Gillies said the UBF is encouraged by the higher level support from the police leadership.

“UBF policy links crime fighting with economic policy that raises job creation and thus reduces the need for crime. We understand that economic intelligence is in short supply within the political structures of eThekwini Municipality. This is exacerbated by service failure at all levels in the Umbilo. Fighting crime entails political change, as poverty in Umbilo is directly linked to obstructionist policy from the municipality,” he said.

ALSO READ: Business forum constitutes new division

He said the UBF will attempt to communicate with the various heads of relevant departments in an attempt to rectify issues in the area, however he said it appears it is time for citizens to roll up their sleeves and take back authority given to the municipality.

Regarding a request for comment regarding lack of service delivery in the area, eThekwini Municipality had not responded at the time of going to print,
Metro Police spokesperson, Snr Supt Parboo Sewpersad, however, said there was ongoing enforcement on Sydney Road in the lower Umbilo area.

“There cannot be any truth that there is a lack of enforcement as the stats we have speaks volumes. Recently on one day we had 40 prosecutions for various offences including one for disregarding a red robot. We do enforce daily however I cannot place static deployments due to capacity and Umbilo is one of the six policing precincts that the division has to service. Enforcement is ongoing, however the UBF must take complaints to the CPF and should not operate on their own,” said Sewpersad.

Do you want to receive news alerts via Telegram? Send us a message (not an sms) with your name and surname to 060 532 5535.

You can also join the conversation on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

PLEASE NOTE: If you have signed up for our news alerts you need to save the Berea Mail Telegram number as a contact to your phone, otherwise you will not receive our alerts

Here’s where you can download Telegram on Android or Apple