LAST year I had some unusual visitors at my den in the Old Location where I have decided to resettle myself out of nostalgia for the Ou Lokasie, Oruvanda Ruetu as those more nostalgic and senior than me would reminisce.
For those who may be lost I am referring to modern day Tauben Glenn residential area in the greater Hochland Park suburb. These visitors as unsual as they may have been, were most welcome. Welcome because rarely do some of us, even those who may be in dire need of the help of these visitors, and the public service they are supposed to offer but which days seem a service reserved for a privileged few, get such visits. But there they were apparently having been alerted to some noise pollution supposedly emanating from my humble den. It was the first time in the more than 20 years that I have been hibernating in this humble den of mine. And this is because a Seminole sole that I have been, this time around I had more than ten people assembling. Hence the uninvited and undivided attention of my visitors. Due to the seclusion and privacy that I all these years seem to have maintained, and now all of a sudden this seeming affection I was getting from my hitherto non-existent folk, may perhaps have alarmed and unnerved whoever alerted or misdirected the City Police to my den this particular night. And to this day, and I swear to my ancestors this could not have come from my neighbours given the neighbourliness that we had been maintaining that far, and to this day. Not forgetting that time and again they are the ones who have been busy bodies in the hood. And like the case with my jovial folks on that occasion, hardly could theirs have been labelled a disturbance or noise polluting joyousness whatever the nature of the alert to the City Police may have been. But all I know is that in my neighbourhood there has been an earthly scourge in the form of a gambling house. To say the least this has been the Sodom and Gomorrah of the hood. Not figuratively but literally in the Biblical sense. Because the regular spectre of this place not excepting weekdays, has been noise, interspersed with fights, gun shots, not to mention the empty bottles littered around the place. Such littering even reaching my little den about 200 metres away. Now if such have been my terms of endurance 200 metres away, one cannot imagine the wretched residents closer to this house of vice.
The unbecoming occurrence which has become an usual spectre is that alcohol is not only consumed inside this house of vice but outside as well. And around the whole vicinity, what is supposed to be a parking for shoppers of the nearby supermarket, has now been turned into an illegal and unlicensed open air nightclub. Myriads of car audios compete for the accolade of the best mobile disco. I remember the City Police at one point coming to admonish the landlord of the other close-by watering hole, which is our local watering hole. Apparently, once again for disturbing the neighbourhood through noise pollution. But I can put my head on the block that during the time that I have been living in this area, and have been frequenting this particular watering hole, no time can it be accused of in any way violating the terms of its licence. On the contrary, it is undeniable and unmistakable that the next door house of vice has been violating every rule of its licence. In fact one is tempted to conclude that it must be operating under different licensing terms, especially in terms of noise pollution as there seems no limit or inhibition to the volume of noise it can blast? Or in terms of where alcohol should be consumed. And also there seems no limit to their littering.
Somehow, increasingly the place seems to be a popular hideout for dubious societal elements. Now, don’t let me believe that the City Police are not and have not been aware of the doings, and vile about and around this particular place? If, what have they been doing about it? If not, does it mean that no one has ever drawn their attention to the eyesore, ear bashing and environmental and the attendant defiling of the neighbourhood? Yes, one may give City Police the benefit of the doubt that they may not have been aware? But being the vigilant ears and eyes of the city that they are supposed to be, and its protector, ignorance in this regard cannot be an excuse. Because the goings-on around this place have been evident. Only the last Sunday night there seemed to be pitched battles among these dubious elements chasing one another around the neighbourhood with bottles and stones flying right, left and centre. Luckily the cars around the local watering hole escaped the cross-fire.
One is raising this question in the context of the peace and stability that has often been chorused about. That often law-abiding citizens going about their ordinary orderly, peaceful and lawful tranquil lives, more often than not seem to be the ones inviting uninvited and undeserved wrath of the law enforcement agencies. Criminals and delinquents on the contrary, are roaming freely while holding society to ransom. While my local watering hole has many a time invited undue attention from the City Police, for this home of unruliness next to it, it has been seeming business usual. The eye and ear of the law seeming blind and deaf to it. While we are praise-singing peace and stability, in reality our communities seem in constant states of sieges. Looks like driving whatever hour of the day in most of our towns and cities are a hazard. Not to mention even the fact that we are no longer safe in our own homes. If these are the daily state of affairs pertaining, and more the rule than the exception, what creatures are the peace and stability that often our political principals have been eulogising? Their own, which seem to be the only guaranteed? Or that of John Public, who no longer seems to find safety anywhere?