Noise from community centre

Brett Syndercombe, Milnerton

On Wednesday night March 7, from about 8pm to 2.30am the next morning, there was a party in the Milnerton Community Centre, in Jansens Road, Milnerton.

Apparently it was a Nigerian wake. The noise was astonishing. Apart from the blaring voices on the PA system coming from inside, and a band or loud recorded music, there was, outside, a group of perhaps 20 men playing on African drums and other percussion instruments.

Evidently, they had been drinking. The police were called twice and on both occasions they pulled up in the van and then drove off without even getting out.

When pressed to explain what was going on and why nothing was being done, Captain Miller of the Milnerton police said, “What do you want, a riot?”.

On both occasions, the van was, in fact, mobbed by the drum players and clearly they intimidated the police into simply leaving.

Captain Miller told me that they claimed to have permission from the council to carry on as loudly as they liked until 2am. Evidently the drumming and singing were a “ritual”.

Sleeping on a weeknight is a ritual that everyone in the surrounding area would have liked to have had respected too!

According to a cleaner who I spoke to the next morning, this was not an exceptional case at all.

Evidently, these kinds of affairs, which are loud and continue into the small hours, are regularly held in various council buildings in Table View, Blouberg and Milnerton all through the year.

He, of course, was annoyed by the considerable mess they left behind, and I was annoyed by the noise and littering.

I saw various people simply throw rubbish out of their car windows as they pulled out. There was also much revving of engines and the like, just to add insult to injury.

There were easily over 100 cars in the lot. The noise was literally echoing off the surrounding blocks of flats in the area. I could not sleep until 3am.

I was most certainly not the only one. I think it is utterly unacceptable that ratepayers are subjected to this kind of noise pollution by the council.

I don’t care that they need to make money, this is not the way to go about it.

Suzette Little, mayoral committee member for area north, responds: The City views these allegations in a serious light.

The applicable conditions of hire have been contravened, and we commit to investigating and implementing the applicable penalties as per the conditions of hire.

The event was scheduled from 3pm to midnight for a memorial service. As per our conditions of hire, we do not allow bookings after midnight, the lease period must include setting up before as well as cleaning time after the event, and the facility must be reinstated to its original condition.

Our conditions with regard to noise are also very clear.

For noise complaints, contact the City’s Public Emergency Communications Centre at 107 from a landline or 021 480 7700 from a cellphone.

Milnerton SAPS spokesperson, Captain Nopaya Mdyidi, responds: An investigation will be conducted internally regarding the complaint and the necessary steps will be taken.