The closing of hundreds of lanes is hanging in limbo due to a reluctance among residents to take out lease agreements.
The Subcouncils 12 and 17 last week both had a discussion on how to tackle the issue and both came up with different solutions.
The hundreds of lanes criss-crossing every area of Mitchell’s Plain since the area’s suburbs were first built has been a bone of contention for residents, councillors and police alike.
TygerBurger has spoken to residents living on the lanes’ peripherals and they all say that criminals use the lanes as quick getaways when committing crimes.
Some residents have been lobbying to have the lanes closed for decades, but while some are willing to pay the leasing fee for the closure, many say they cannot afford the small sum because they survive on social grants.
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Regional manager Alicia Bosman, who was standing in for Subcouncil 12 manager Mcebisi Fetu, said the sub-council had approved more than 300 lanes for closure in January 2024.
“It has been a tremendous task to pull through for people to actually apply for their lane to be closed,” she told Subcouncil 12 meeting on Thursday 20 November.
“So, during the last financial year, we managed to close 100 lanes. That was with top-up funding from the mayor’s budget. Our challenge is that there are around 200 or 214 lanes still to be closed.
“However, we cannot motivate for funding or as ward councillors, you cannot allocate the funds without us having the lease applications. So people are not applying even though we’ve gone out robustly, open door, the deputy mayor has been out in areas.
“We’ve been to meetings to actually inform residents to apply for these lane closures. So now we get the ad hoc emails into our inboxes where people are asking when the lanes are going to be closed, and our response would then be, ‘please come and apply to your nearest Sub council to have the lanes closed’.”
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She said some ward councillors have allocated hundreds of thousands of rands from the reallocation budget, which would be then approved by council in January 2026.
“We cannot go forward to motivate for funding without lease applications. So this would be a standard item unless people actually come to us and apply.”
Subcouncil 17
On Monday 17 November, Subcouncil 17 approached the long-standing agenda item in a different way, since it had a different difficulty.
Subcouncil manager Goodman Rorwana said some councillors contributed towards the budget provision for the lane closures.
“We have a control document that is going to get the council approval in the January adjustment budget,” he said.
“We are still busy compiling the final list, of all the lanes that are in the pipeline that are to be closed, and we’re still encouraging our residents to submit their lane closures,” he said.
However, there was not enough in the budget to close all the lanes where the correct applications had been made.
Westridge ward councillor Ashley Potts said some residents had requested to close the lanes themselves.
“Once we know it’s approved and the residents who are now entitled to lease that portion, can they go ahead and close it themselves? This request has come through a number of times,” Potts said.
Subcouncil chair, Elton Jansen, said it was possible but needed a separate application since there were specific guidelines that needed following.
“There is that provision available, we just need to apply. We must get a permit from the department and our project manager who will obviously give us the scope and the guidance because you must meet the specifications as to how those lanes must be closed.”
