It is a sad day when people feel the need to ‘protest’ against everything, even when those they wish to protest against have shown to be doing their best to stop and control the problem.
In one case where the Southgate Business Park has been accused of pollution, it was in fact found to be a municipal pipe on the outside of the park which had broken and caused pollutants to end up further down the line.
We have asked the city to do regular checks on the water flowing through the park, which they are doing.
We have issued instructions that our security personnel are to do checks twice a day on the quality of the water and changes are immediately reported to the city.
We have instructed our service provider (Keith Walters – E-scape), who deals with the maintenance of the plants, verges and discarded matter within the Park, to do clean-ups of the banks of the streams on a regular basis, as well as the wetland.
We have raised the issue of untreated sewage ending up in the stream before entering Southgate with the Metro as we have no control of what is permitted to flow in from the KwaMakhutha area.
It would appear that the protest is proposed against the wrong people, as of the 280-plus businesses in the park, only a few deal with materials that could possibly end up in the stormwater system, and most of these have trained staff and issued instructions to deal with accidental spillages, if and when they occur.
Is a similar protest planned against the city, the residents of KwaMakhutha and other persons who live next to the other streams that feed the Amanzimtoti River, who are dumping materials and waste into the water?
It just seems a bit unfair to sully the name of Southgate Business Park when we are the people who have been assisting any person who has an interest in identifying the alleged culprits, have dedicated staff to identify changes in the water, have constantly been calling on the local authorities to assist us and have staff who pick up litter and other items that may find its way into the water and onto the banks.
The purpose of a protest appears to be to draw attention to a particular problem, so that those who are being protested against start doing something about the problem, which clearly Southgate Business Park management has shown itself to have done.
We obviously respect the right of any person to protest as long as there is a valid point to the whole issue (and even if there is no point, we would still have to respect that right), that it is done peacefully and in compliance with the directives of the police.
The management team of Southgate Business Park is ready to assist where we can and share a common interest in the upkeep of our natural resources.
The people in Southgate, who it has been intimated are polluting the rivers and environment, gave of their time on Mandela Day to collect the rubbish and filth deposited on the south side of Moss Kolnik Drive and collected three bakkie loads of black bags filled with refuse.
The total workforce required to accomplish this project came from Keith Walters and his team, Andrew Velleman and his team, Andre Hendricks and Charmaine and their team, both the latter from Toyota within the Park.
