Madeira Park residents in Komani have vowed not to allow the Chris Hani District Municipality to host its annual Jazz Festival despite the municipality’s assurances that the event will go ahead tomorrow.
A group of residents are gathered outside the Gali Thembani Youth Care Centre blocking the entrance in protest of the festival being staged on their door step.
“We will die here if we have to because we are not moving an inch from this gate until the municipality gives us a reassurance that this festival will be moved somewhere else,” said Nokuphila Sindelo Fudumele
She said that the festival would bring an influx of people to the area including criminals who would use the event as a cover to further terrorise the community which is already battling against crime, drugs and house breakings.
Fudumele said the municipality was putting their lives at risk by hosting the festival on their door step because the police were failing to curb crime in the area which she said was exacerbated by the vandalised street lights and load shedding.
She said that the community was never consulted by the municipality and they will not back down until the festival is called off.
“We only learned about this through the media, the municipality never came to us to ask to discuss this so we are not going anywhere,” Fudumele said.
Another resident, Ntsikelelo Haji said: “How is this event going to benefit us when we do not even have electricity and water in our homes.”
He said that the Jazz Festival which is hosted in partnership with the department of sports, arts and culture and the Enoch Mgijima Local Municipality, was not a priority for residents and that it should not be prioritised ahead of service delivery.
“Fun an entertainment is the last thing on our minds right now, we have too many problems to be celebrating,” he said.
Lonwabo Dubula said the municipality was using the police to intimidate residents in order to force the hosting of this event against the will of the people.
He said that when they report crime to the police, they are never available and always have an excuse.
“When you call them to report a crime they will tell you that there’s not enough vans but look at them now, they have enough vans to come out and intimidate the community because of the municipality,” he said.
The Jazz Festival is scheduled to take place tomorrow, Saturday at 12 noon.
This is a developing story.
By Gcina Ntsaluba
