SYDENHAM residents have slammed deputy-mayor Fawzia Peer after she failed to attend a community meeting on Friday evening, saying she had to attend a dinner engagement instead.
More than 100 residents filled the Sydenham Community Centre hall where they waited to raise concerns with Metro Police and municipal officials about the dangers on Moses Kotane (Sparks) and Barnes Roads, after a seven-year-old child was knocked down and killed on Sparks Road last week. The child’s death sparked a massive outcry from the community who later took to the streets to voice their concern about speeding on their roads.The community has since called for speed calming measures on roads in the area and say this will assist in maintaining the speed limit and lessening the number of road traffic incidents on the busy roads.
Speaking at the meeting on Friday, a resident said if the community could not get speed humps, speed cameras, warning lights or even traffic circles, then some other kind of intervention was needed to ensure the roads were safe.
Ward 31, Councillor Chris Pappas confirmed that requests for speed humps, traffic lights, barriers, speed cameras, warning lights, traffic circles had been made but that the response from the city was that for those kinds of measures to be implemented, a number of things had to be taken into consideration,including the number of accidents that have occurred on the road in question, the environment and the road category.
“The purpose of the meeting was to have political and administrative leaders answer to the community on what interventions will be put into place to ensure the safety of people in the streets. Officials from metro police, eThekwini Traffic Authority and the Deputy Mayor’s office were invited to the meeting. Only metro police arrived. Ethekwini Traffic Authority did not send a representative or apologies for their lack of attendance. The Deputy Mayor sent an apology stating that she would be attending a dinner instead of addressing the concerns of the Sydenham residents,” Pappas said.
The deputy Mayor’s change of plans did not sit well with the more than 100 residents who had gathered at the Sydenham Community Centre to address the issue. One resident accused the city of not caring about its residents. “What kind of leader prioritizes a dinner over the lives of people,” he asked.
After angry and emotional residents vented their frustrations and concerns it was decided that a task team would be created comprising of members of the community. This task team would be responsible for devising a strategy to confront provincial and municipal government on the issues of Moses Kotane (Sparks) Road, Randles Road and Rippon Road. The task team will be made up of six residents, the ward Councillor and two members of the ward committee. The task team is expected to meet this week to discuss the issues going forward.
According to the city’s policy, traffic calming devices are implemented in terms of the Council approved policy and were implemented on Class 4 and 5 roads only. Class 5 roads are local residential roads whose primary function is to provide access to properties and are not used by public transport or by commercial delivery vehicles. Class 4 roads are local collector/distributor roads whose primary function it is to collect or distribute traffic within an area. These roads typically have traffic signals, used by buses and other public transport and for general commercial deliveries.
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