DURBAN - Merebank residents have called on the eThekwini Municipality’s Sports, Parks and Recreation committee to fix the deserted Himalaya Road sports facility which they said has been turned into a bush and haven for criminals.
Since December last year, the residents have been complaining about the uncut grass and soaring crime levels.
One of the residents, Kate-Lyn Muthusamy, wrote to several people in the municipality detailing how the deserted sports facility was affecting the community.
On Thursday, she told the Daily News that as a result of the uncut grass, a child had been robbed and the perpetrator had a place to hide in the deserted facility.
Muthusamy said they had run out of options as their pleas had been ignored, and no one had even bothered to look into their problems.
In a letter to the eThekwini Municipality, she wrote: “On February 22 a child was robbed and the perpetrator had a place to hide – in the very bush you created because you have failed to do a job. The Himalaya Road sports ground in Merebank is in a deplorable, disgusting state!
“We complained numerous times to the local councillors, who have done nothing. PR councillor Sthembiso Ngema has been trying tirelessly to get some help with this issue. The grass is not cut – left a whole ecosystem almost like wetlands!
“Residents who live on the perimeter of this sports ground bear the brunt of stench, flies and mosquitoes that are immune to repellents. The criminal activity within this ground has sparked, whereby perpetrators hide in the bushes.
“The land around the grounds is slowly becoming illegal dump sites because of this overlook. There seems to be a lack of empathy and of consequences for people not doing their job because we have not seen grass cutting or clean-ups done continuously. There is never a time whereby a job is complete to its totality,” said Muthusamy in the letter, on behalf of her community.
She added that the email thread started in January last year, and things “got so much worse from then”. She said that as ratepayers they were “disgruntled and unhappy residents who humbly asked for an intervention for the whole of Merebank ward 75 Chinatown and Navy sections”.
Sports, Parks and Recreation committee head Zama Sokhabase said her committee planned to revive sports facilities in the financial year, and that she would personally attend to the Himalaya Road problem.
The Daily News has reported several times on the problems facing the Merebank community. One of their problems is the soaring crime levels, which the community attributes in part to scrapyard dealers in residential areas.
In January alone, the residents said 40 crime incidents had been recorded.
The community even held a protest and handed over a petition to municipal officials, but said that to date, nothing had been done.
Daily News