Pretoria - MMC for Corporate and Shared Services in Tshwane Kingsley Wakelin and his Community Safety counterpart Grandi Theunissen yesterday visited Menlyn to address issues of taxis, informal traders, drug dealing and other matters related to service delivery.
This comes after the Menlyn Central Improvement District (CID) and Community Policing Forum (CPF) alerted the City to alleged incidents of live animals being slaughtered on the pavement and of drugs being sold by traders.
During the visit, the MMCs also conducted a surprise drug bust at the Atterbury Road overpass by the Menlyn Spruit. The area is well known to the CID and CPF as a major drug-dealing hot spot, which threatens the sensitive ecology of the area.
“It is therefore important that we continue to work together as the City and our stakeholders to protect our communities,” Wakelin said.
“Another element of the oversight visit was to ensure that we conduct and monitor urban management operations, such as grass cutting, road marking and street light repairs.”
In another matter affecting the area, last year the City of Tshwane facilitated a meeting between the management of Menlyn Park Shopping Centre and the Menlyn Taxi Association to come to an agreement for the taxis to use part of the mall for parking.
This would solve the problem of taxis parking on the pavement outside the mall and the health issues associated with informal traders. The agreement was supposed to be signed in January 2023, but the mall management and taxi association have deadlocked over the payment for parking spaces at the mall and a few other matters.
“There have been enough delays on this matter and I have requested the MMC for Roads and Transport to facilitate a meeting between the mall management and taxi association to break the deadlock and come to an agreement,” the MMC said.
“Taxis play an important part in the local economy, however, we cannot suspend the enforcement of by-laws while we wait for the parties to reach an agreement. We can all agree that cleaner and safer streets are essential and important elements of building a city that works.
“Our visit showed that we have several successful partnerships in place with the local CID and CPF to address numerous issues in our city.”
He said the Tshwane Metro Police would keep a close eye on the area.
Pretoria News