- A tense confrontation occurred in Kraaifontein Industria as truck drivers blocked Acacia Street, trapping local business owners and preventing them from leaving their premises.
- The situation escalated with verbal altercations and threats.
- Business owners, frustrated by frequent disruptions, are calling for urgent intervention from the City of Cape Town, having petitioned both the Mayor and the Premier.
A tense standoff erupted in Kraaifontein Industria last Monday as truck drivers and local business owners engaged in a heated confrontation over heavy duty trucks blocking their entrances in Acacia street, and thereby inadvertently preventing them and their employees from going home.
Verbal altercations quickly escalated as threatening language was exchanged while business owners were trapped inside their premises by trucks cueing in the street waiting to fill up at the diesel depot.
“It started at about 18:30 as we were getting ready to go home. As usual a convoy of heavy trucks were blocking the street and it took us half an hour to just get a gap to get out of our gates.Then, as we tried to navigate our way up the street, new trucks approached from the front trapping us in the middle of the street. We again had to get out of our vehicles to approach truck drivers to let us through,” says Hannes Rheeder. It was during these confrontations that things got heated.
he says.
This entrance road into the industrial area are blocked in both directions at least twice a week as trucks entering and leaving Cape Town on the N1 flock into the industrial area to fill up at the diesel depot.
According to local businessman Hannes Rheeder, everything including business comes to a standstill on these days when the trucks stack up all the way from the N1, down Industrial Road and into Acasia Street in both lanes. As a result these and surrounding streets become totally inaccessible to any other traffic and entrances to business premises are blocked off making it impossible for clients, suppliers or employees to get in and out.
At least 71 businesses in total are negatively affected thereby threatening the viability of the entire area as a place of business and employment.
“Businesses are losing money and customers cant reach us. While we have employees to pay clients are going elsewhere for business,” he says.
Struggle
After a four-year struggle with authorities over the matter affected parties several weeks ago petitioned Mayor of Cape Town Geordin Hill-Lewis and Premier Alan Winde, stating their claim as rates payers and requesting urgent intervention.
“We have raised these concerns with the City of Cape Town for more than four years, yet we have not seen any significant improvements beyond the installation of ineffective red lines, which are consistently ignored by truck drivers. Considering the substantial property taxes contributed by these businesses to the City of Cape Town annually, we strongly believe that the City should allocate resources to address the following traffic and road issues within our area,” read the letter sent to the Mayor’s office.
According to Rheeder the Mayor is yet to acknowledge receipt of their petition.
he says.
In that response to the newspaper, the City’s Mayco member for urban mobility, Rob Quintas, said the City is aware of the traffic concerns and that the Urban Mobility Directorate is currently investigating the feasibility of converting Acacia Road in Kraaifontein from a two-directional roadway to a one-way road.
He furthermore stated that the City would undertake a public participation process to allow residents, businesses, and the general public, the opportunity to submit comments to make sure such a measure will not negatively impact the area.
On approaching the City again last week for an update on the matter Quintas told TygerBurger that public participation is planned for 26 August to 27 September.
“This will be an opportunity for all concerned parties or those in the Kraaifontein Industria area to comment on the proposed one-way to ensure their concerns are addressed. The public participation section has compiled various documentation in this regard which will be served at the next Subcouncil meeting in August 2024,” he said.
Not informed
But this too is news to them, Rheeder told the newspaper on Friday.
“We have not been informed about anything. It seems the newspaper are afforded more information than ourselves. The least the City could do after all the effort we put in to draw up the petition was to say yes, we received your petition and your problem is on the table. But it seems to be no bother about this.”
As tensions are growing Rheeder says he foresees only trouble.
“I wont be surprised if business owners block the road off one of these days barring trucks from entering the area. It can only give off a fiasco.”
Upon enquiring to the Mayor’s office on why it failed to respond to the petition, a spokesperson told TygerBurger that the letter and petition was “addressed to Whom it may concern, City of Cape Town”, albeit directly emailed to the Mayor’s office and personal email addresses as pointed out by the newspaper. The spokesperson stated that the matter is being handled by the office of the Mayco member.
