Durban — Residents in Morningside, Durban are up in arms after an illegal car wash sprung up on a tennis court on Montpelier Road.
Resident, Nick Burke, said the owners used a municipal facility and water for free without legal documentation. He said the ward councillor and relevant parties at the municipality had the car wash removed, but it returned towards the end of last year.
Residents said the owner allowed people to consume alcohol and braai on the premises. They made a mess and generated excessive noise.
Ward councillor Ernest Smith said the matter had been escalated.
“What is troubling is that these people are operating here without any legal documents. They do not have permission to be here,” he said.
Smith said he was monitoring the situation. He said when he asked the municipality for an update he was told such matters took time.
“The municipality knows about this issue and there are a lot of issues in this area. However, I will keep on pushing for the matter to be resolved,” he said.
Another resident, who refused to be named, questioned who paid for the water and electricity used by the business. He said the car wash people broke the locks of the park after they were evicted.
“By the look of things, maybe gangsters are operating in that place because they were chased away by the police and for them to just come back like that is concerning,” he said.
The resident also expressed concern about where the oil and grease used in the car wash went.
“It is probably going down to some drain; they have no care for the environment,” he said.
Smith said residents were encouraged to report issues such as this to the metro police and SAPS (and keep the reference number) in order to help curb opportunists such as this.
The eThekwini Municipality had not responded by the time of publication.
Daily News