Hector Eliott, Hout Bay
As a resident of the area on and off since 1991, I have seen many changes in Hout Bay, nearly all of them positive.
The inevitable growth of a once sleepy hollow into a bustling tourist destination and family magnet, alongside the explosion of Imizamo Yethu and Dontse Yakhe, has come with a few challenges. Pollution is one of them.
The Disa River, for example, is inevitably contaminated by informal settlement run-off, which flushes E. coli and other bacteria onto the beach.
This is caused by the challenges faced by people living in conditions where they have little access to proper sanitation.
They aren’t trying to pollute the beach.
They live in informal housing out of economic necessity, i.e. not wilfully, not to show off and not to entertain themselves.
In stark contrast, are another group whose numbers have grown enormously over the years.
These are folks who, for one reason or another, enjoy riding extremely noisy, generally expensive, motorcycles for fun.
These individuals throw takeaway boxes out of the windows of cars or discard chip packets and cigarette butts in the street or on the beach.
A significant portion of these individuals seem not to be concerned over the impact their careless pollution of the environment has on others, whether people or animals.
I have absolutely no problem with anyone who wishes to ride a motorcycle for entertainment purposes.
What I ask is that they do so either quietly or elsewhere, where there are no people or other creatures that will be disturbed by their ear-splitting discharges.
It is not just against environmental legislation and City by-laws, it is pollution, pure and simple, and it is being done solely for the entertainment of a handful of individuals at the expense and discomfort of the broader community.
Folks who want to hear loud engines can go to race-tracks or watch them on TV or any number of online platforms.
Just please don’t make that noise on the streets of Hout Bay. People live, sleep, relax and study here. We have plenty of serious, grown-up-level societal problems here.
Asking the City or even SAPS to instil simple manners and basic common sense into nuisance noise-makers, on top of fighting crime, drugs, illegal taxis etc, shouldn’t be necessary.
Nuisance noise has no upside, and in this case is giving motorcyclists in general an aura of being vain, entitled, immature and insecure, even though the majority of riders are in fact careful not to disturb fellow human beings while they enjoy their hobby.
