City of Joburg clamps down on 215 illegal road closures

The Joburg Roads Agency has started issuing infringement notices to all residents who have constructed illegal road closures/security access facilities, also known as boom gates, in the city.

The city has identified a total of 215 of these unlawful structures, and those residents who fail to properly apply or uninstall the fixtures after the first notice will receive final letters demanding the removal.

Failure to remove the boom gates after the final notice will see the city obtain orders for their removal at a cost to the residents, it said.

City regions

The regions identified in which these illegal boom gates are situated include:

• Region A – 16 structures
• Region B – 41 structures
• Region C – 16 structures
• Region D – 0 structures
• Region E – 115 structures
• Region F – 25 structures
• Region G – 2 structures

“The City of Joburg’s Transport Department is concerned about the escalating illegal security access facilities that are constructed by residents without consultation, authorization, and approval by the City,” said the department.

“The majority of the security access facilities (boom gates) are not constructed in accordance of the City’s security and access restriction police, 2018.”

The policy makes provision for guidelines and steps that must be followed by the public in order to legally erect security access facilities. Residents must also wait until approval is made before any work can be done.

These boom gates are an effort from citizens to curb high crime rates in their areas and are no strange sighting to many South Africans whose daily commutes have been affected by thoroughfares that were suddenly closed off.

According to Private Property, sectioning off a portion of a suburb and controlling who has access to the homes reduces the chances of opportunistic as well as organised crimes, but it also has its fair share of downsides.

“Research conducted by Professor KD Boffard from the Johannesburg Hospital Trauma Unit found that emergency vehicles’ response times were delayed by between 7 and 15 minutes when attempting to enter access-controlled areas,” said the company.

“He also found that while the crime rate supposedly fell in boomed suburbs, the overall morbidity and mortality rate rose after access was restricted.”