Statement by Mayco Member for Urban Mobility, Councillor Rob Quintas

Two stormwater ponds situated along Hout Bay Main Road below Imizamo Yethu have been vandalised yet again. These ponds are extremely important, preventing flooding of homes and roads during downpours in the winter months. The City of Cape Town’s Road Infrastructure Management Department manages these ponds, but we simply cannot keep up with the vandalism and illegal dumping.

I condemn this irresponsible behaviour in the strongest terms possible. It is deeply disrespectful, undermines our efforts to maintain order, and puts the lives of our most vulnerable citizens, the children, at risk.

Vandalism kills.

This infrastructure is there for a reason and when it is vandalised, it cannot perform to prevent flooding of homes and roads when it rains, causing tragedy and misery for the surrounding communities.

This is not the first time that the infrastructure around the ponds have been vandalised. It has happened several times and each time we have to fix the gates, which is also a waste of public funds.

We do this because we care and place the safety of our residents at the centre of our service delivery. However, this cannot be allowed to continue. It is costly and is a safety hazard.

The main purpose of a stormwater pond is to collect rain water, or stormwater runoff, that runs over impermeable surfaces such as parking lots, roads, and buildings.

Children, who have been able to gain access to these ponds because of the vandalised gates, are now blocking and obstructing the flow from these ponds causing it to dam up. The ponds are then used as swimming pools. This is a safety hazard in more ways than one:

• the water is not treated and therefore unsuitable for swimming and recreational use, frankly those getting into the pond put their health at risk

• children are using these ponds without adult supervision and they can drown

• I also want to appeal to the residents and parents to please ensure that their children stay away from these ponds for their own safety.

This is your area and the services are for the betterment of your area and for your benefit. Thus, if you see or suspect illegal activity on any municipal infrastructure, please use the communication channels at your disposal to report them. These include your ward councillor, street committee, and the police.

The Hout Bay Roads depot is assessing whether the vandalised gates can be repaired and reinstalled to secure the area as soon as possible. Then we can only hope that the gates will remain in place and that anyone touching them will be reported by the local residents.

Bahlali base-Houtbay ndiyanibongoza ukuba nisebenzisane nathi, yindawo yenu le, ngabantwana benu aba. Eli dabi lokulwa ulwaphulo-mthetho nobusela lelethu sonke. (Hout Bay Residents, I appeal to you to work with us, this is your area, these are your children. The war on crime and theft is for us all)

You can use the following channels to report vandalism:

• Transport Information Centre (TIC) on 080 065 6463. This is a 24/7 information centre and free from a landline or a cell phone.

• Send an email to Transport.Info@capetown.gov.za

• Please ensure that you include your name, contact number and the exact location of the incident. It is very important to ensure that the details of the location are 100% correct, as this will improve our response time.

Source: City Of Cape Town