The successful safety partnership between the Maitland CID public safety team, SAPS, Law Enforcement and Traffic Services resulted in R49 700 worth of fines that were issued at various day and night time roadblocks in the Maitland City Improvement District during the months of April and May this year.

During these roadblocks on 29 and 30 April, as well as on 8, 14 and 15 May altogether 205 vehicles were stopped and 67 fines were issues. A person was also arrested for the possession of Mandrax and a taxi driver for driving under the influence of alcohol. The Law Enforcement Liquor Compliance Unit investigated 8 premises and fines worth R5 200 were issued for unlicensed sales. A number of people were arrested for drug related charges at a night club in Voortrekker Road during a SAPS operation in the area.

Towards the end of January an increase in crime in the Maitlaid CID area were experienced. One of the big challenges is the Metro Rail security situation which saw more attempted break-ins form the area.

“The constant battle with stolen trolleys and wheelie bins continue every day and we hope that our zero-tolerance approach has a positive impact,” says Gene Lorentz, CEO of management company Geocentric. It is not uncommon to find all kinds of stolen property in these trolleys which ranges from car batteries, counterfeit goods, car parts to vehicle spares, copper wire and cables and metal.

Several arrests were made during this period including the confiscation of 90 City of Cape Town blue bags – a case that was handed over to the SAPS.

The operations of the Geocentric Urban Cleaning Team are progressing well. Litter picking and dealing with illegal dumping is a continuous challenge within the CID boundaries, but we can already see the benefits of our revised cleaning plan in which we attend to more aspects than merely litter picking, removing of graffiti and posters and general cleansing.

The infographic below gives a general overview of the first three months of 2015.

A huge part of the Maitland CID area is not designed for huge vehicles to travel here, yet on a daily basis you will find large vehicles trying to navigate the smaller streets and the turning circles resulting in broken sidewalks, run over electrical boxes, poles and traffic lights.

This One Way street sign on the corner of Coronation and Koeberg Service Road was recently knocked down by a truck and had to be re-instated. This generally would be done by the Council however sometimes the team from the CID has to jump in to repair urgent incidences which would have required a long wait from the City side due to lots of infrastructure work on their agenda as well.

Damage done by a large truck which reversed into one of the major power kiosks in Voortrekker Road

Large container trucks traveling from and to the harbour and delivering containers to Grindrod and the depots along Voortrekker Road towards Salt River are also creating a huge traffic blockage and congestion by using routes through-out the CID which was not designed for heavy traffic. One example of this is the daily congestion along Beach Road towards the Koeberg intersection.

A number of defunct railway lines of Metro / Prassa were stolen in January this year. Although outside the Maitland CID area, a surveillance operation was started on 18 February to deal with cases of stolen scrap and motor vehicles found in the area or by means of searching loaded stolen trolleys. The operation is ongoing.

From copper cables, scrap metal, electronic equipment, drugs to even melted aluminium found after the recent veld fires in Tokai were amongst things confiscated from suspected people in the Maitland CID area over the past three months. Here are some of the scrap metal found in bags being searched by the Maitland CID’s team of public safety officers

Removing illegal posters is another challenge that the team from the Maitland CID has to deal with on a daily basis. Here are some health campaigners in front of Pick and Pay distributing illegal pamphlets which were stopped by the CID’s public safety officers.

The Maitland CID’s team of public safety officers faces ongoing challenges with vagrants and homeless people that need to be redirected to shelters for safety.

During the past three months the team had to deal with a number of incidents of substance abuse amongst children and adults. Amongst these were a case of a 15-year old boy who was found in a park under the influence of Tik and almost completely unconscious. School children are regularly found under the M5 bridge smoking dagga. In one such case, they gave false names and when taken to school, nobody knew who they were.

The team from the CID depends a lot on the help of their social partners to help curb these social problems. Unfortunately there are a lot of drug dealers that target the youth in this area.

Some deep cleaning operations were undertaken in the area of Amstel Street and Kensington Street on the boundary of the Maitland CID. Similar work was done under the M5 Bridge at Voortrekker Road and along-side Prestige Bridge where lots of weeds was removed

The MAITLAND CITY IMPROVEMENT DISTRICT NPC will be hosting its Annual General Meeting and all stakeholders are invited to a review of the year’s activities.

Date:                              24 November 2014

Time:                              16:00

Venue:                           Maitland City Improvement District Office, Cnr Sydow & Camp Roads, Maitland

Resolutions presented at the AGM can only be voted on by bona fide members of the Maitland City Improvement District. This membership is available free of charge to all owners of commercial or property within the SRA footprint, but they must be registered before 21 November 2014

For further information on how to register e-mail enquiries@maitcid.co.za or call 021 510 8059