Buffalo City residents are angry about the swathes of grass and bush overwhelming road verges, devouring pavements and offering camouflage for burglars and muggers.
They also complain that the metro is stonewalling them — they get no response to their grievances, they have told the Dispatch.
BCM spokesperson Samkelo Ngwenya told the Dispatch the grass was “long across the city due to the above-average rainfall and heat we have had since December until today, which is conducive to a high rate of vegetation growth”.
Complaints came from Beacon Bay, especially Beaconhurst Drive, Batting Bridge and Old Transkei Road.
Ray van Zyl, from Beacon Bay, said residents feared that muggers, home and car burglars would hide in the overgrowth.
Van Zyl said the residents were losing hope that the grass would ever be cut as their numerous complaints to BCM had got no reaction.
There were also complaints of rats coming into houses.
A resident, who wanted to remain anonymous, told the Dispatch he tried in January to raise alarm bells with BCM about the dirty state of the metro. The out-of-control, unkempt grass was especially annoying.
“How can we live in such a dirty city, the one that used to be an award-winning municipality? What is happening?
“Implementation of the president’s Thuma Mina project seems ineffective,” he said.
DA councillor Marion Mackley told DispatchLIVE she had done what she could to raise the issue of overgrown grass.
“Residents are complaining. This is becoming a problem. I reported it numerous times with no luck,” Mackley said.
Beacon Bay Ratepayers Association chair Malcolm Symonds said the whole of East London was becoming choked with grass and bush.
“Unfortunately there is nothing we can do about it.
“The whole city is like that,” Symonds said.
Resident Katie Joubert, who visits children at Frere Hospital, said long grass had encroached on the sidewalk, throughout the city centre, forcing pedestrians to walk in the road which was dangerous.
Ngwenya said grass cutting was “currently being done in various areas of the city”.
Buffalo City residents rumble about dirty, unkempt metro
Image: SANDISO PHALISO
Buffalo City residents are angry about the swathes of grass and bush overwhelming road verges, devouring pavements and offering camouflage for burglars and muggers.
They also complain that the metro is stonewalling them — they get no response to their grievances, they have told the Dispatch.
BCM spokesperson Samkelo Ngwenya told the Dispatch the grass was “long across the city due to the above-average rainfall and heat we have had since December until today, which is conducive to a high rate of vegetation growth”.
Complaints came from Beacon Bay, especially Beaconhurst Drive, Batting Bridge and Old Transkei Road.
Ray van Zyl, from Beacon Bay, said residents feared that muggers, home and car burglars would hide in the overgrowth.
Van Zyl said the residents were losing hope that the grass would ever be cut as their numerous complaints to BCM had got no reaction.
There were also complaints of rats coming into houses.
A resident, who wanted to remain anonymous, told the Dispatch he tried in January to raise alarm bells with BCM about the dirty state of the metro. The out-of-control, unkempt grass was especially annoying.
“How can we live in such a dirty city, the one that used to be an award-winning municipality? What is happening?
“Implementation of the president’s Thuma Mina project seems ineffective,” he said.
DA councillor Marion Mackley told DispatchLIVE she had done what she could to raise the issue of overgrown grass.
“Residents are complaining. This is becoming a problem. I reported it numerous times with no luck,” Mackley said.
Beacon Bay Ratepayers Association chair Malcolm Symonds said the whole of East London was becoming choked with grass and bush.
“Unfortunately there is nothing we can do about it.
“The whole city is like that,” Symonds said.
Resident Katie Joubert, who visits children at Frere Hospital, said long grass had encroached on the sidewalk, throughout the city centre, forcing pedestrians to walk in the road which was dangerous.
Ngwenya said grass cutting was “currently being done in various areas of the city”.
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