BCM car wash clampdown
‘This is the only way we can make money for food ... What must we do?’
BCM is clamping down on illegal car washing along the beachfront.
Metro spokesman Samkelo Ngwenya said those caught using the car washers’ services could face six months in jail or a R10 000 fine.
“On Saturday May 19, BCM law enforcement services shut down unlawful washing of vehicles in Buffalo City at the beachfront. Vehicle owners whose cars were washed were prosecuted,” said Ngwenya.
He warned car owners to avoid the illegal car washes, saying the metro’s law enforcement team was always “on their feet” when it came to “uprooting illegal actions”.
“We are intensifying the operation of making sure that no one continues with these illegal car washes in all areas of the metro as actions of this nature contravene our by-laws, contribute to water loss and leave recreational places in a dirty state.”
Sivuyile Mduna, who has been washing cars on the Esplanade for 10 years, said: “This is the only way we can make money for food. How can we be breaking the law?
“Sometimes we get chased away but what can we do? What must we do? They [police] can come here at anytime,” said Maduna, adding that law enforcement was often inconsistent, with some officers letting them be and others chasing them. “Sometimes they take our tools. Buckets, soap, polish – all our tools.
“They [police] tell us that we make the place dirty but BCM workers give us black bags that we use to clean up here. We’ve been asking that at least they give us a place where we can wash cars. We would like that.”
Mduna said he had witnessed law enforcement giving car wash customers fines and chasing them away.
When asked if BCM would consider giving the washers a dedicated area Ngwenya said: “Yes, we encourage entrepreneurship and efforts towards such activities can be accommodated, as in the case with SMMEs and hawkers and the mamas of Ebuhlanti.
“So we are not saying that the beachfront is exclusive or anything like that but there are laws and demarcations that must be adhered to.”
Ngwenya said the car washes were a breach of the roads and street by-laws as stated in the Local Government Municipal Systems Act (32/2000): Buffalo City Municipality roads and streets by-laws chapter 9 on prohibition upon certain activities in connection with objects in streets, which states that “no person shall, in a street, clean a vehicle or wash, clean, dry or bleach any other thing”.
Ngwenya said the penalty included a fine of up to R10 000 or a jail term of up to six months or a combination.
A woman who was having her car washed said she did not know about the prohibition and she could not understand why the washers would be stopped from working for a living. —