The violations in question include an illegal recruitment office with illegal extensions, an illegal mosque with illegal building alterations, the notorious brothels, panel beaters operating in residential areas and illegal car sales. I consider these to be serious violations which must be dealt with strictly in order to avoid what are perceived as minor indiscretions becoming part of a greater culture of lawlessness.

Property owners have been required in the past to break down structures for which there is no building approval and to close down or move businesses for which they have no zoning rights.

I would like to assure all people running illegal businesses and other disruptive activities from their homes, and those engaging in illegal building and alterations that we will catch you and you will be penalised.

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

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.

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?

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

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

The Chairman
Municipal Demarcation Board
304 Orient Street
Arcadia
Pretoria
0083

18 December, 2009

Mr Mahlangu

Reference: DEADLINE FOR CONSENSUS ON 2011 MUNICIPAL WARDS

The press statement in The Mercury of Wednesday December 16 2009 issued by you states that today, December 18, is the deadline by which all municipalities are to indicate to the Municipal Demarcation Board whether consensus has been reached on the issue of ward delimitation for the 2011 Local Government Elections.

The Democratic Alliance first became aware that the new maps were available on 23 November per chance by visiting the MDB website.  The first time we were officially informed of this process by the Municipal Manager of the eThekwini Municipality was at an emergency meeting held on Tuesday after a front page article in The Mercury brought to the fore the lack of attention being given to this process.

At this meeting, Dr Sutcliffe stated unequivocally that the deadline of 18 December was unrealistic and that he had notified you of this concern.  He then instructed all political parties present to provide their input on this process by the 15 January 2010.  All our attempts to confirm this deadline extension with the MDB have been refuted by the officials with whom we have spoken.

The Democratic Alliance has worked hard over the past 2-3 weeks to analyse and understand the extensive demarcation proposals for the 2011 Local Government Elections.  It appears that around two-thirds of the 100 existing wards have been changed and we most certainly have fundamental objections to several of those proposals.

We believe that many of the proposed changes are not going to support the services delivery imperatives of this Government and some of them split communities across wards.  Additionally, we have proposals relating to the 3 additional wards to ensure these three wards are as compliant with the spirit of demarcation legislation as possible while still keeping community and service delivery concerns at the fore.

As a result of both the late availability of the proposals and the lack of consultation by the Municipality, we are concerned that local communities and other stakeholders have not had sufficient opportunity to understand and provide feedback on the proposed changes.

In light of the above, we thus request:
1. you register the objection of the Democratic Alliance in eThekwini to both:
a. the proposed ward delimitation proposals; and
b. the lack of any consultation and communication undertaken by the eThekwini Municipal Manager with respect to this process; and
2. clarification of the deadline for consensus as it applies to eThekwini.

The Democratic Alliance will provide constructive counter proposals at the MDB3 Workshop when it is held in eThekwini during May 2010 (according to the calendar provided with Circular no. 6).

Yours faithfully

Cllr Warwick Bruce Chapman
Demarcation Coordinator: Democratic Alliance eThekwini Caucus

—

Response from MDB 22 December, 2009

Dear Municipal Managers

I wish to convey the MDB’s appreciation to the majority of KZN municipalities that managed to submit to the Board either form MDB1 or MDB2 or MDB3 before or on the closing date of 18 December 2009.

The Board would like to urge the other municipalities that have not submitted a form as yet, to do so urgently.

As you are aware – and as indicated in Circular 6/2009 – the Board will commence with its MDB3 visits to municipalities by February 2010.

Should you be able to submit the outstanding forms by, at the latest, 15 January 2010, we might be able to consider and map the proposals before the scheduled MDB3 meetings.

Should you intend not to submit a form please inform me urgently by email. The MDB’s proposals will then be gazetted for objections.

The MDB appreciates your contributions, and wishes you all the best for the Festive Season and for 2010.

Regards
Robert Willemse
Municipal Demarcation Board

On behalf of the Democratic Alliance in eThekwini, Cllr Geoff Pullan and I have been studying the proposed ward demarcation proposals and trying to make sense whether the proposals have been made in the interests of democracy or to further the interests of any particular party.  There are significant changes proposed for the Highway Area including a split of ward 9 (Hillcrest) into two wards, a reduction in size of ward 10 (Kloof), significant reshuffle of wards 15 and 16 (which appear to benefit one party), no changes to ward 18 (Pinetown), a reduction is size of ward 19 and no changes to ward 21.

Our response to these proposed changes is due this Friday 18 December and should any resident require any information or wish to provide any input, I would invite them to contact me directly.