“In the 80s a man was shot and he died in that lane,” said a resident whose home abuts the lane in Hartbees Street, Eastridge.
The elderly resident, who did not want to be named for fear of reprisals, said she and her neighbours have been battling to close the lane for decades.
The lane has three homes on its periphery and two of the neighbours have said that they would be willing to pay the City a leasing fee for its closure but the third is in the process of moving. The house has had several changes in ownership, the elderly resident said, adding that she suspected the lane was to blame for the frequent change in occupancy.
The residents in Malva Crescent, Eastridge, face similar challenges.
Only one of the four residents whose homes abut the lane was willing to speak to TygerBurger anonymously.
She and her neighbours had made an application to close the lane many years ago but have had no feedback since then. She said that when the application was made, the residents were told that they would need to pay an annual leasing fee.
This put many residents off since they were all Sassa recipients of disability or pensions grants.
“We were told that it would cost about R600 a year to lease the lane but don’t know how we are going to afford that,” she said.
Regular sub-council discussion
Lanes and their closures are a regular item on the agendas of the Mitchell’s Plain Sub-councils 12 and 17.
Last month Ward 75 councillor Joan Woodman said two more lanes had been earmarked for closure in her ward but the process had stalled because the residents on the lane’s edges did not want to enter into lease agreements.
She told TygerBurger she has 27 lanes in her ward that have been approved for closing and most of them have already been closed.
“Each area has different impacts. Woodlands was approved but residents are not eager to sign agreements. Some have, however, closed their lanes at their own expense,” Woodman said.
Ward 81 councillor Ashley Potts told a sub-council meeting last month that some residents in his ward had already closed the lanes themselves.
Ward 92 councillor, Norman Adonis, told TygerBurger that the lanes in Botha and Hartbees have been earmarked for closing but he was awaiting funding.
The Hartbees residents were surprised to hear that the lane had finally been approved for closing.
The elderly resident, who has been at the forefront of the fight for its closure, said the road’s residents had been petitioning for its closure since 1986. They issued a renewed petition in 2023 after a seven-year-old was killed by a stray bullet in the next road. The man who had fired the bullet had used the lane as a getaway, she said.
She added that this was just one of many criminal incidents linked to the lane. One year, gangsters had thrown stones at each other through the lane. Her home got the brunt of the assault and her roof, windows and gutters all had to be replaced.
She said pedestrians who used the lane ran through it “because you don’t know who is waiting on the other side”.
She had heard of residents in other areas who had walled up lanes themselves illegally but the City had then thrown the walls down. She was willing to pay for the lease of the lane, she said, provided the amount was reasonable.
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