The advertising company behind the affixing of heavy steel frames to the Golf Club Terrace bridge has been taken to task by City of Johannesburg Ward 89 councillor Amelia Bester, and MMC for Economic Development and Ward 97 councillor, Leah Knott.
The duo went to the Honeydew Police Station on Friday, 18 October, to open a case of malicious damage to municipal property after being notified of the structures by BCI Security, whose personnel came across the installers attaching the steel framework to the bridge the night before.
“I received a called from MMC Knott to the effect that illegal structures had been affixed to the bridge during the course of the night. I went on site to investigate and found that structures had been erected on both sides of the bridge. We then decided to lay a complaint with the police,” Amelia explained.
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She criticised the wrongdoers, saying, “This is a complete disregard of the rule of law, exploitation of the City’s procedures and disrespect to the residents”. She further indicated that the structures brought the integrity of bridge as well as the safety of the residents into question.
Prior to opening the case, Leah did a background check to ascertain if any approvals were issued by the relevant entities.
“Essentially, what you need is approval from the Outdoor Advertising Department or a contract with the Johannesburg Property Company (JPC). Getting either of these involves the Development Planning Department or having a way leave issued by the Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) to work on any road reserve in the city in order to avoid violating any by-laws. However, none of these documents was available,” Leah explained.
She added that that JRA operations manager, Lawrence Maseko could only confirm that applications had been made to work on a different road in Constantia Kloof (not at the location of the bridge) and on CR Swart Road.
Leah also disclosed her suspicions as to what the perpetrator was attempting to do. “We’ve discovered with a number of illegal structures along Hendrik Potgieter Road and in other parts of the city that the perpetrators are trying to take advantage of the transitional period that has been declared in Council. During this time, we are allowing advertisers to declare signage that has lapsed contracts or approvals that have become bogged down in the red tape of the City,” she explained.
However, the MMC feels this amnesty has been misinterpreted by the advertisers. “They are using this to put up false advertising or declare sites that don’t exist and then putting up signage as if it’s been there for a long period of time. This is not the purpose of the transitional period. Its purpose is to allow grace for advertisers that have been inconvenienced or prejudiced by lack of controls that might have happened in Council; however, it doesn’t allow them to contravene the by-laws,” she clarified, adding that such structures cannot be approved even if they are taken to the transitional adjudication panel, because they violate the by-laws.
When asked about the possibilities of removing the structure, Leah said the Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) has been made aware of incident and have inspected the bridge. However, they have to catch the workers in the act in order to confiscate their tools and impound their vehicles.
She further explained that the police were given the details of the company that was doing the installation to investigate why they were working without permission.
The Honeydew Police spokesperson, Captain Balan Muthan, confirmed that a case was opened at the station. “The matter is still under investigation. The people who were involved in damaging municipal property will be arrested,” he said.
While Honeydew Police Station has a reputation for poor service at its help desk, the councillors had a different first-time experience. “It was a first for me to lay a complaint of this nature and I was very impressed with the service we got, from the time we walked into the station until we left,” said Amelia.
Leah added, “I’ve never laid a case at Honeydew Police Station. However, I was very impressed with their service from the reception to the Warrant Officer and the Colonel who took down our statement. We were treated with respect and our concern was respected”.
