COUNCILLOR Glenn McArthur is correct to hold the Msunduzi municipal manager accountable for failing to deal with the real reasons why this city is falling to pieces (The Witness, November 14).McArthur, together with the Ratepayers Association, has been trying to get the council to respond and deal with issues such as the implementation of a five-day-a-week clinic in Prestbury, the closing of public lanes in Prestbury, and implementation of basic services to the Peace Valley III informal settlement for a number of years now, without adequate response or success.Correspondence from many different organisations and individuals is simply not being dealt with and even councillors’ own resolutions to council, although approved in committee, are not being acted on by officials.As the person at the top of the tree, the municipal manager needs to take responsibility, lead by example and hold his officials accountable instead of trying to wriggle his way around the real issues at hand.
LESLEY OOSTERBROEK Secretary,
Zwartkop Valley Ratepayers Association
Pietermaritzburg
The Witness 20 November 2008
8 years ago
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I am a resident in Mayors Walk, Prestbury, Pietermaritzburg and have been living there for almost 2 years now. Obviously due to the cost of houses nowadays I could not afford to purchase elsewhere in Pietermaritzburg, this however does not have to force me to take the “issues of the community” and sweep it under the carpet. I am after all a ratepayer and am entitled to live peacefully with my family and community.Opposite our home is a business Budhur’s Liquor Store/ Kyle’s Take-Aways/ Dolphin Electrical who lately have taken to selling liquor on “large scale” as a distributor” selling liquor to business owners/customers. These business owners are queuing to purchase liquor at odd times; today15/12/2012 at 06h15am playing loud music and disrupting the peace. During the day it is absolute chaos with regards to parking as these traders have even taking to parking in front of our drive way. The SAB 12 ton truck comes in there almost daily for deliveries, you can only imagine the amount of liquor being sold….for a small business owner this is large scale trading. This excludes the other deliveries from an independent transport company coming in daily with a 8 ton truck.Litter is a constant headache; even the shop owner has taken to dumping the rubbish on the pavement with no bins. Traffic is a headache as folks drive up one ways, a few accidents have also happened on this very same corner. Shop customers get to sit on the grass areas under the trees and drink in public. Surely if they have the correct license these consumers should be sitting inside the business premises? Also, should they not be serving meals? I feel this is unfair to me as a resident and the community as these business owners come into our residential area, operate large business cause havoc and go home in the evenings with no problems.I/we as a community have reported this nuisance several times to the Prestbury Police Station and NOTHING ever gets done.Complain This we have done, the community even drew up a petition which was handed over to Prestbury Police Station, prior to the license being issued. This petition was shown by a Police Officer to the business owner who had intimidated a few of the residents. Our rights were not even considered. Where is the fairness in all this? Are people being paid to keep quite? I cannot even say how many times I reported the selling of liquor on large scale on Sundays and Public holidays to CRIME STOP. Do you know that nothing ever was done? Ethos of social responsibility ??What are we to do? No one seems to care. Besides the fact that we all know that they are making massive amounts of money (cash) daily potentially creating a huge risk with regards to armed robberies?
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