Mehanos Pizza
STRICTLY HALAAL
You tasted the rest now taste the best!
19 cm pizza
• Chicken or • Gheema or Gheena or • Seafood
R19 90
ATHLONE BRANCH ONLY 021 633 4664
E-mail: post@peoplespost.co.za
Tuesday 23 August 2011
Tel: 021 713 9440 Fax: 021 713 9481
People’s Post now online PEOPLE’S POST has gone digital: We launch our new interactive website, created specifically for the southern suburbs, at midnight today (Tuesday). The new site, built on a platform called Netlocal, was created by Media24 as a framework for community newspapers. The new www.peoplespost.co.za is bigger and better than our previous site, and will offer interactive browsing, comments and competitions, photo galleries and video clips, as well as pages for schools and organisations. How will it benefit you? For one, it means improved engagement with content, up-to-date news, interactive links, tailor-made advertising space for local businesses and consumers, and a place to upload photos and videos, provide feedback and post events. You can also help to fight crime by telling us about any criminal activity in your area in the Crime Watch section. As our domain grows, new features will be enabled, giving the community a place to air their views through blogging. • Be one of the first to register with our new site at www.peoplespost.co.za and stand a chance to win one of five pairs of double tickets to see Marc Lottering at 19:00 at Fish Hoek High School on Saturday. Contact us via the website, email post@peoplespost.co.za, or send an SMS to 32516. SMSes cost R1.
TAKING A STAND: The inter section of Somerset and Buitengracht roads was in vaded by an army of protest ers clad in a pointed lack of attire on Saturday. More than 2 000 Capetonians marched under the banner of the Slut Walk – a worldwide protest phenomenon – filling the streets with chants of “we wear what we want” and “re al men do not rape”, their banners proclaiming things like “proud slut”, “rapists rape people, not outfits” and “we are so angry we made a poster”. The SlutWalk start ed as a response to a Toronto police officer’s comment in January that “women should avoid dressing like sluts in or der not to be victimised”.Pho to: Hanrie Bosch
Jobless ‘loiterers’ irk residents TAMMY PETERSEN
P
UBLIC indecency, rowdiness and a bad impression have been “dragged into Crawford” thanks to unemployed men who have “made themselves comfortable” in Rokeby Road. Locals claim the leafy suburb is being “infiltrated” by the jobless, usually “about a dozen of them”, who sit at the street corners, waiting for potential employers to pick them up for a day of labour. But resident Mohammed Isgak says the “unwelcome visitors” are bad for Crawford’s image. “We are hardworking people who pay a lot of money for property in this area. We are proud of where we live, but the first thing you see when your turn into this road is a group of scruffy-looking loiterers who act like hooligans on the street corner.
“Why do they choose to sit here? Can’t they go somewhere else?” He claims that theft and robberies have increased since the unemployed started using their road as a “meeting point”. “Every day I see them walk up and down our streets at about lunch time when they haven’t been picked up. Our area hasn’t really been safe in recent months. Who says these people aren’t scoping out our places, looking for an opportunity to strike? They must move.” Mariam Crowley says she sometimes “skels like a drunken woman” because the men “act like they are in the township”. “They urinate against our walls and get drunk from early in the morning. They are a nuisance and not welcome here. They are turning our area into a slum, and I for one am not going to tolerate it.” She says her neighbour sometimes chases the men to the park at
the opposite end of the Kromboom Road, but they return “and goad him as he walks home”. “They are taking over our streets and think they have the right to do what they like? Where are the police? Can’t they be arrested for loitering?” However, Elvis Nokuphane, who says he is “regularly picked up for jobs” at the street corner, blames locals for being rude. “They think because they are rich they can treat us like dirt. We are just trying to make a living and they are only worried about their image. We will not go – they can do what they like, but we are staying put.” Another man, Boy Jongi, says residents “swear and scream” at them when they “only do nothing”. “We only want to work. Some of the people are nice and bring us sandwiches, but most of them are horrible. They want to chase us
away like dogs. They have no ubuntu.” Yolande Faro, deputy chief of the Metro Police, says as long as no law is being broken, no law enforcement agency may infringe on a person’s constitutional right to freedom of movement. “However, if anyone witnesses anything criminal, or in contravention of the City’s bylaws, taking place, they can report the matter to us to be followed up on,” she explains. “If a complaint is received, the officers will visit the area and give the individuals a verbal warning, advising them to refrain the committing the offence again. “But if a witness is prepared to give a statement, can pinpoint the offender and is willing to lodge a formal complaint, further action will be taken.” She advises residents to phone the local office’s 24hour hotline on (021) 596-1999 should they have any grievances.