Fury over Two Oceans music
NOISE from one of the country’s top marathons kept South Africa’s athletics boss awake a year ago— and he has warned he will take action if it happens again.
Last Easter the president of Athletics South Africa, James Evans, twice complained to the police about the “window-shaking” sound system at the start of Cape Town’s Two Oceans Marathon. This year, the scenic race will start at about 6am on Saturday in Main Road, Newlands, and take runners around the Cape Peninsula.
Evans, who lives close to the start line, said he would not hesitate to report the race organisers to the police if they again disrupted the peace and quiet of the suburb. He said of last year’s event: “On Good Friday at 5pm their sound people were pumping noise out so loudly that my windows were shaking.
“I went across the road to tell them to switch the thing off and they said they’re doing the sound test, so I said: ‘ Fine, I’ll call the police. It’s illegal, we have laws in Cape Town.’
“The next morning at 4am I got woken up . . . I phoned the police on both days and they just refused to do anything.
“If [race organisers] do it again this year, I’m going to the police again and this time the police had better follow up.”
Race director Rowyn James denied that the Two Oceans Marathon had been in breach of any city bylaws, saying the organisers had all the necessary permits, including a noise-exemption certificate for Friday and Saturday.
“The irony is that we did not get a single other complaint from anyone else in the Newlands area,” said James. But he would ask the sound crew to be “a little more circumspect”, he said.
“We are mindful of [the issue that] has been raised.” SOUTH African Jewish immigrants who face a barrage of objections from neighbours are nevertheless determined to erect a 20km-long symbolic fence around their suburb in Australia.
Long-standing plans to complete the enclosure at St Ives in northern Sydney have been vigorously opposed by 1 200 neighbours and the local council.
Orthodox Jews are not permitted to remove goods such as baby prams, keys and wheelchairs from their homes on the Sabbath unless they are surrounded by an eruv — a symbolic wire enclosure.
The almost complete eruv at St Ives is linked to existing telephone and electricity poles by copper wire.
David Guth, representing families supporting the fence, said this week that the “majority ” of those seeking the boundary were South African immigrants.
At least 100 immigrant families observe orthodox rules for the Sabbath, and expatriates dominate the total population of 2 200 Jewish residents of St Ives.
Guth said a recent ruling by the New South Wales Land and Environment Court had halted construction of the fence, but residents were determined to get permission to erect a handful of 6m poles needed for the eruv.
The local Ku-ring-gai council blocked the boundary after debate that included anti-
A torrent of abuse polluted the internet against SA Jews
Semitic and xenophobic comments, according to some South African-born residents.
An audio recording of a council meeting broadcast by The World Today, a local radio station, confirmed that councillor Elise Keays, replying to a remark about Guth’s “nonprofit organisation”, said: “Jewish non-profit? Come on!”
Fellow councillors were then heard laughing.
South African immigrant Vic Alhadeff, CEO of the New South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies, described the comment as “a racist stereotype”.
Australian neighbours were either hostile towards the South Africans, or objected on the basis of the visual impact of the 2cm diameter wires.
Other eruvin with majority Australian residents have been established with little resistance.
In-depth reports by Israel’s Haaretz newspaper in January suggested that the “venomous reaction” to the St Ives boundary was rather against the creation of a South African enclave, owing to allegations of “arrogance” and of South Africans “taking over” key Australian institutions.
The reports said “a torrent of abuse polluted the internet against Jews in general and South African Jews in particular”.
Haaretz claimed that the success of South African business moguls such as David Gonski, Brian Schwartz and Brian Sherman had triggered admiration — and resentment — among some Australians.