October 29, 2004
By Thomas Thale
COUNCIL has approved 46 applications to restrict access to certain residential areas in Johannesburg.
A further 38 requests to boom off roads have been turned down.
The council received a total of 324 submissions applying to legalise more than 2 500 road restrictions across the city. Most applications came from Sandton, Midrand, Kensington and Randburg.
Residents' associations that sought permission from the council to continue operating their boom gates, or to erect new access control points, were informed of the outcome on Thursday, 28 October.
Speaking to the media on Wednesday, Johannesburg mayor Amos Masondo said the City had sought "to ensure effective regulation and management of road closures and to ensure that people have access to all public facilities and to the relevant infrastructure, including the City's road network".
The council adopted a policy on road access restrictions in April last year, which rendered all booms in the city illegal and gave residents of gated communities a three-month ultimatum to apply to have their booms legalised.
The Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) received 324 applications to legalise 2 548 boomed off areas.
Mavela Dlamini, managing director of the JRA, said the 46 approved applications cover 71 road restrictions and affect 85 roads.
Some 38 applications, involving 107 road restrictions, were rejected. "These are mostly cases in which the diversion of traffic would have had an adverse effect on traffic flow," Dlamini said.
Twelve applications have been sent back for further investigation, two returned for further public participation, and two returned pending a broader Traffic Impact Study, Masondo said.
A further 94 applications have not yet been finalised. In most of these cases the JRA is waiting for feedback from the South African Police Services, who, according to Masondo, have to "assess whether the existence of specified street closures have resulted in a reduction or increase in incidents of crime".
The executive director of the department of development planning, transportation and environment, Amanda Nair, pledged that all applications would be processed by December.
Applications that have been approved must be gazetted before they come into effect. "An approval is valid for two years from the date on which a notice is advertised in the media and in the government gazette or from a later date specified in the government gazette," said Masondo.
It remains illegal to ask people entering boomed gates for their details, Dlamini pointed out. "You can only monitor people coming in, but you cannot obstruct their movement." Dlamini added that booms should not be chained or locked.
Applicants who have been turned down have 10 days in which to lodge appeals, according to Dlamini.
Communities whose applications have been turned down will have 30 days in which to remove the access gates or booms. Any road closure not removed will be taken down by the JRA and the costs will be recovered from the community involved.
For more information contact the JRA on 011 298 5000.
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