Tempers flare at Bothasig meeting
Tempers flared at a public meeting in Bothasig last week as residents fumed about power cuts caused by cable theft, vagrancy and drug use in their parks and poor policing.
About 50 people attended the meeting called by the Bothasig Residents’ Association at the Wolraad Woltemade Primary School hall, and when load shedding hit, they held up their phones for light so that they could continue to drive home their points.
“If this doesn’t show you that we are gatvol of the sh*t happening in this community, then I have no words,” said a resident.
They complained that various parks and lanes were no longer safe because of vagrants sleeping, defecating, urinating and doing drugs there, said the residents.
They called for traffic officers to be more visible around schools to stop cars and taxis holding up traffic, and for greater SAPS visibility.
When Bothasig’s visible policing commander, Warrant Officer Willy Jansen, tried to present the area’s crime stats for December, January and February, residents interrupted him, saying the figures were incorrect.
A resident jumped up and said: “We call you guys, and you either don’t come out or you come to the scene when everything has already happened. And people do not lay charges, but the incidents are happening, so don't come read off your paper and show us presentations of the incorrect stats.”
Warrant Officer Jansen said the station was understaffed because the stats “are too low” and officers were deployed to precincts with higher stats.
“It is for that reason because cases are not being reported, which shows that the stats are too low,” he said.
But he could not finish as residents accused the police of “not doing their job”.
“You guys are slap-gat,” said a resident sitting at the back of the hall.
The BRA’s chairman, Mario Borchards, asked residents to respect the speakers at the meeting and said those who were not part of crime-fighting initiatives should get involved to see what sort of daily challenges they faced.
“Get involved. It's easier said than done. We are trying our best to tackle every issue that Bothasig is faced with, and it's not as easy as we think it is. So if you have any solutions and suggestions, I encourage you to get involved,” he said.
The load shedding prevented the ward councillor, Miquette Temlette, from delivering her PowerPoint presentation.
Wayne Aldridge, from City Law Enforcement’s displaced people unit, said he had heard all of the community’s complaints, but he wanted to complain to them about them.
“Stop feeding the homeless. Stop leaving your old clothes and goods on top of your bins and separating your dirt for them. This is why they stick around because you are giving them something to keep going.”
The City was working tirelessly to stop vagrancy and get people into shelters, but it had to follow the law when removing a homeless person, he said.
He promised the residents that he would set up a task team of residents that would get training on how and when to remove homeless people from the streets.
A subsequent BRA Facebook post said Inspector Alridge had visited the Friends of Van Arkel Park group on Monday March 18 to discuss how to deal with the vagrants in that park.
Speaking to Tabletalk on Monday, Mr Borchards said: “We fully understand residents' frustrations, especially related to Eskom, vagrants and drug abuse in our parks. However, using profanities in public meetings is disrespectful and inappropriate behaviour. Such language creates a hostile or uncomfortable atmosphere, detracting from the purpose of the meeting and hindering productive communication.”
He said he feared that some speakers would not want to attend future meetings.
“The main purpose of this meeting was for residents to ‘have their say’. We will have another public meeting in the near future, but a date has not been decided. We will cover specific topics in future meetings,” he said.
“It is important that residents ask their questions within a framework of what can and cannot be done. For example, it was suggested that parks should be fenced. There is, however, no budget in the ward allocation for the fence.”
