DRINKING in public, informal pavement parties and illegal stopping on the main road are taking their toll on Mtubatuba’s law-abiding residents and leaving them questioning the town’s by-laws.
Until earlier this year, Mtuba Park, on the outskirts of the town, had started attracting unsavoury characters.
The park was regularly misused, becoming a haven for illicit activities including public drinking, public indecency and apparent prostitution.
After numerous reports to the police, the officers notified the Municipal Manager and Mtuba Park’s perimeters were barricaded with concrete blocks shortly before the elections.
According to a concerned resident, who asked not to be named, ‘The barricade has definitely kept the people from hanging out in the park, but now the pavements have become even more popular than before.’
The resident said, ‘The mess is deplorable, the drunkenness is hectic, the music is now thundering from right in front of our homes.’
And young women are reportedly being ‘propositioned’ on the streets by male loiterers.
Recently, a ward councillor was allegedly seen stopping in a designated ‘no stopping’ zone, while another was reportedly seen driving the wrong way down a one-way road.
When a traffic officer was asked why the councillor wasn’t pulled over, he allegedly replied, ‘Oh no, we cannot pull her over, we have tried, but she just tells us we work for her and we will do as she says.’
SAPS confirmed that all by-laws in Mtubatuba, including public drinking and public indecency, have not been changed and there is no reason for them not to be enforced.
The same resident said that when the police were asked to remove loiterers and their informal party from outside her house, no police vehicle arrived, but one of the loiterers received a telephone call, after which the party moved on.
‘This happens when I give police at least one of the parked vehicle’s number plates,’ said the resident.
In the case of Mtuba Park, the police are confident the misuse of the park stopped when the area was barricaded.
Other allegations could not be confirmed but SAPS officers urge residents to continue reporting criminal activity.
