April 11, 2003
By Thomas Thale
THE City of Johannesburg is to remove all illegally erected booms across the city and discourage the closure of access roads to suburbs.
This emerged from a report compiled by a panel of experts appointed last year to investigate and formulate a city policy on the subject. The report was unveiled to the media on Friday. The policy will be tabled before the full sitting of council on 17 April.
Amos Masondo, executive mayor of the city, said the findings of the panel followed a long process of consultation with various interest groups, including public hearings and submissions. "After carefully considering and evaluating these issues, the panel concluded that the long-term impact of security access restrictions is not desirable and therefore should not be encouraged or promoted in the City of Johannesburg," Masondo said.
In reaching their conclusions, the panellists were guided by considerations of safety and security, property values, urban functionality, traffic, constitution, legislation and social and economic issues, said Amanda Nair, chairperson of the panel.
The panel report does however, provide for the city to put in place, "a process to consider applications for security access restrictions" and for the approval of some applications under "exceptional circumstances" as prescribed by the Gauteng Rationalisation of Local Government Act No 10 of 1998. The Act confers on the city, the power to process applications for road closures.
Residents who have illegally erected booms will be given a three months ultimatum to remove the structures. Once the deadline expires, the Johannesburg Roads Agency will move in to demolish all illegally constructed road closures.
Even in cases where approval for the erection of booms has been granted, personnel manning access points will not be allowed to search or register people going through, and, if they suspect criminal activity, they are required to call the police. Parks Tau, councillor responsible for development planning in the city, said applications would only be considered for the closure of roads, which are "local distributors, cul-de-sacs or access-only streets". Applicants are required to submit a traffic impact study confirming that traffic flow will not be disrupted or displaced by the closures. Roads which handle heavier traffic will not be considered for closure.
Other conditions stipulate that closures must have the support of 90% of residents, may not cause vehicles or pedestrians to incur lengthy, time consuming diversions, may not interfere with access for emergency or maintenance vehicles and must have adequate signage.
The city currently has a backlog of 300 applications to process. Applications for security access restrictions will be processed by the Johannesburg Roads Agency. The final approval will come from the Executive Director of Development Planning, Transportation and Environment.
The city considers safety and security issues to be real, said Tau, and encourages residents to continue playing an active role in combating crime. "The council therefore supports measures such as purpose built cluster homes, street guards and closed circuit TV surveillance," Tau added.
Nair said the soaring crime levels in the city in recent years gave rise to public demands for road closures in residential, commercial and industrial areas. "But there was no uniform policy in place and this gave rise to different practices in the city," Nair explained. "Previously, each Metropolitan Local Council followed a different approach."
The long-term solution to rampant crime, says the panel report, lies in increasing employment, making the police force visible and effective and identifying and prosecuting criminals actively.
The issue of gated communities has been a subject of intense public debate and litigation in recent months. Currently, two cases involving the residents of Sandhurst and Kensington are before court. These cases, said Karen Bester, director of legal services in the city, will proceed. "We are fairly confident that we have a strong case and we are keen to have a court ruling on the matter. The new policy only enhances our case before court."
