THE question of how the new Nuisances and Behaviour in Public Spaces by-law would be enforced was the resounding topic at a recent meeting of the Durban Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
Gabriella La Foy, deputy head of the Legislative Drafting department at eThekwini municipality, presented the background to the by-law at the meeting, which was attended by business owners and Chamber representatives.
She said this was not a new by-law as such, but the legislative drafting team had worked with departments and councillors in eThekwini to come up with a suitable draft, and it was now in the training and implementation phase, before it is put into action in March 2016.
She said there was still a long way to go before the by-law was put into action, and that following consultation between the municipality, the NPA, SAPS and Metro to set the admission of guilt fine at an acceptable level, they were at a stage where parties were happy with the fine amounts and that the decision was now up to the chief magistrate.
“The training and implementation period is around six months. Police are being trained on the new offences and how to enforce them. We’re good to go and a public notice will be issued around 11 March to bring the by-law into force,” she said.
Questions from the floor were mainly around the issue of enforcement, as people were concerned with how fines would be followed up on.
Chris Meintjies from Enforce brought up the issue of beggars, and how the municipality would recover the fines. La Foy said that in the case where people are genuinely homeless, the municipality would have to get creative, and think of ways, such as community service.
They could be sent to clean up the beach, for example. The municipality will need to be innovative where monetary fines are not applicable, – she said.
La Foy said that in other cases, the municipality would need to lobby hard for consolidation on fines and look at perhaps charging fines to offenders’ municipal bills.
Nicky Burke from the Berea Sector 2 SCF, mentioned the issue of Florida Road and the noise disturbance from night clubs.
“An admission of guilt fine of R1 500 is nothing to night club owners, the real problem is enforcement, as there is no continuity in this at the moment. There should be a process in place to record offences and they should not be able to have their licenced renewed if they are repeat offenders,” she said.
La Foy said this would be a case where a licencing issue should be triggered.
Ian Laing, precinct manager at Bridge City, said he felt it always came down to enforcement and that some laws were virtually unenforceable.
Beth Dickens from Pinetown CPF said she felt the by-law was a great move, but that we are becoming a deaf society, because of loud noise problems.
“Taxi owners and restaurant owners need to be educated on the by-law,” she said.
La Foy responded by saying an education drive related to media articles and education at schools would be done, so people were aware of the implications of the by-law. She said there was an attempt to bridge the gap between the city and the townships, and a strategy was in place to do this.
“This is not a city or government by-law, this is for the residents of eThekwini. Enforcement works best when working in conjunction with others. I will relay issues noted at the meeting regarding enforcement, to Metro Police. I feel this by-law is not a waste of resources, it will ultimately result in the general decrease in crime. It’s worthwhile to desire and work towards by-law enforcement, and that is why we are working with police on this. It is a challenge and a process,” said La Foy.
