Warwick Bruce Chapman

A sign at the North Beach Metro Police Station

During the long weekend where we celebrated Human Right’s day, the Durban Metro Police were again implicated in rounding up street children. This time they also detained a foreign journalist who they suspect captured their activities on camera. The irony of this incident was that the journalists were in Durban to cover the Street Children’s World Cup and not to cover the brutal campaign the City is suspected to be running against street children. Last week the City issued a press statement confirming it does not have a policy of roundups, nor does it support one. Until the City adopts a proper policy for the sustainable management of street children, Metro Police must be reined in and focus only on those individuals committing real crimes. — Warwick Chapman

In a letter written from the Department of Correctional Services to the Human Rights Commission apologising for the claims made by the head of the Westville Prison, the Department states that Mr Mabanga “could not provide any tangible information or documentation in respect of his comments over the Human Rights stance with regards to the electric fence”.

The letter goes on to state that Mr Mabanga “is not totally informed of the status of the electric fence” and that the fence depicted in the picture in the Daily News 24 February “is still under construction” and “not operational”.

As the councillor who represents the community bordering the prison, I find it totally unacceptable that the head of the Correctional Centre appears to have lied about the stance of the HRC on this matter and additionally that he was not sufficiently informed about the status of the electric fence. I sincerely hope his replacement does a better job.

A copy of the letter is available here.

Monday night’s 100 days gala dinner hosted at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli ICC was poorly attended, boring and ultimately a wasteful event.  My rough estimate is that the event had a 50% attendance; highly embarrassing considering the Acting President Kgalema Mothlante was the main speaker.

On arrival, guests were be met by ushers with no guest lists and instead asked to write their names on a page in exchange for a gold wristband.  Any of you could have come along.  When finding a table in the main hall, a few people had seating cards and the rest of us just sat anywhere.  Thank goodness it was poorly attended!

While criticising anything 2010 is frowned upon by all, one has to ask how an event celebrating our readiness to host the event could be so poorly organised?

Note: This was updated and published on 8 January in the Highway Mail as an article instead of a letter.

Dear Editor

Pinetown will be the focus of my attention in Ward 18 for 2010 and quite possibly the years to follow. Infrastructure maintenance remains a priority in the ward and though significant progress has been made in 2009, Pinetown has a long way to go in this regard. Additionally, I believe that the town was never designed for the extent to which it is currently pedestrianised and I will be focusing on formalising the many footpaths which cut through green areas in Pinetown. An example of this can already be seen in the work in progress in the front of the Pinetown Civic Centre where the disused concrete walkway is being cleaned up and and made more presentable and the footpath from Crompton Street to Old Main Rd will be paved as soon as funds become available.

Further to the infrastructural and pedestrian issues, the Pinetown Precint Plan which incorporates wide ranging proposals to revitalise the CBD of Pinetown will be tabled before the eThekwini Economic Development and Planning committee in the first meeting of 2010. I am hoping the plan, which has been many years in the making, will be approved at the meeting, allowing us to present it to the greater Pinetown community for comment.

Crime in Pinetown and the surrounding areas is a major concern and while Councillors are not empowered to influence the fight against crime directly, I am confident that slowly but surely “cleaning up Pinetown” has to make a difference.  We need to ensure infrastructure maintenance is prioritised, parks and gardens and tended to, buildings are painted, windows are fixed, paths are formalised and, in general, the area is revitalised.  I am firmly of the belief that criminals do not thrive in well maintained areas.  Crime loves grime – we need to get rid of the grime.

Additionally, I will be working with SAPS and Metro police to prioritise the policing of minor transgressions such as urinating in public, ignoring rules in parks and traffic violations.  The major crimes must be investigated and are always the top priority but it is high time that chancers and petty criminals learned early on that crime doesn’t pay.  I urge all residents to assist in the fight against crime and get involved in your local Community Policing Forum.

As always, residents are welcome to contact me should they have any municipal issues they have not been able to resolve through the normal channels.

– Warwick Chapman (Cllr Ward 18) | 083 7797 094 | ward18@ethekwini.org | http://warwickchapman.com

The beachfront development is a massive undertaking which will hopefully, like the new stadium, give tourism in Durban another shot in the arm. Why though, does it seem so difficult to get the basics right during the construction? Why out of 6 showers at North beach do only 2 work? Why are there dangerous heaps of twisted steel and concrete, rubble and materials on the beach and promenade? How difficult is it for the relevant officials to get 6 working showers on the busiest beach in Durban? Equally, surely it is in the interests of public safety to remove dangerous rubble, steel and concrete from the beach?

eThekwini is not getting enough of the basics right and these are but two of many such examples we experience on a daily basis in our City.

I would, however, like to applaud Durban Solid Waste for getting going with the cleanup at the beachfront promptly on the morning of the 2 January. It goes without saying that the amount of litter generated by the hundreds of thousands of New Year’s day beachgoers is massive and DSW have their work cut out cleaning it all up. They however, seem to have the basics right – they arrived, and they got started.

– DA Councillor, Warwick Chapman