State of La Rochelle getting worse

I’m referring to the letters that appeared in the Southern COURIER, November 25.

I’ve been a resident there now, for about 11 years. It used to be a pleasure to stay there and go home. But these last couple of years things have been deteriorating a lot.

I agree with the letter writers that things have been going downhill very fast. There’s a pub/club on the corner of Johannesburg and 8th Street, they party until the early mornings, and on their way home (usually 06:00) there’s always fighting in the streets, and they dump their empty beer bottles in our garden – and I assume in others’ as well.

People have been sitting on corners on the pavements drinking, and as soon as they see a police van coming down the street, they will take the beer bottles and put it in our garden until the police have passed, and then just continue drinking. We’ve asked the police what can be done about this, because obviously it’s illegal drinking in the streets, and were told that nothing can be done about it because they don’t cause any trouble.

The second thing is, I have contacted Pikitup (Selinah Tshabalala, Peter Tsikoe, Absolom Mkhumba) and asked them to erect a no dumping sign on the corner where I stay on October 1, but I don’t get any response from them. I even offered to erect the sign myself if it was provided by them.

The reason for this is, my neighbours (and I know who most of them are and can point them out, and have done so to the above mentioned people) have been disregarding the by-laws when it comes to their rubbish. They will just come and put their old carpets, chairs, furniture, couches etc there as they see it as municipality property and they’re allowed to do it. But as a matter of fact, this is illegal dumping. (I’ve taken photos of this and send it to Pikitup).

If you call them to send a truck, they say they’ve got a turnaround time of seven working days, in which time there is more rubbish being dumped, and then the kids and/or dogs go through the rubbish and it’s strewn all over the place.

The little ‘stores’ that pop up in the garages of some of the residents, also are culprits. They take their empty fruit/vegetable boxes and instead of either recycling it or putting it in their rubbish bins for collection every week, it also gets dumped on the corners. I do understand that they’re also trying to make a living, and I respect that, but all I’m asking as a law abiding citizen is to respect my property and the surrounding area.

I hope and pray that something will be done about the problems, now that it has been put under Chief Superindent Wayne Minnaar’s attention.

Concerned Resident, La Rochelle