TENSION flared at the Shallcross Tamil Society temple as metro police issued parking tickets during the sacred kavady celebrations on Tuesday, leading to accusations of religious insensitivity and selective law enforcement.
Devotees of the temple in Himalaya Drive are up in arms after a few devotees received parking tickets, while they were participating in the kavady.
Ven Moodley, who attended the kavady, took pictures of metro officers issuing the traffic violation tickets, while the kavady procession was still at the Shallcross grounds, which was half a kilometre away.
“Yesterday, at around 12.30, while devotees were at the grounds for the kavady, I saw metro officers writing up tickets. When asked what was happening as it was a religious festival, they said they were issuing tickets to cars that had expired licence disks.
“This is the first time that I have seen the metro officers issuing tickets on a holy day, and actively in an area they have not been seen in before. There are other mishaps in our area which don’t receive this much attention. If expired licence disks were the case, why did they choose to use a religious festival to look for expired licenses?,” said Moodley.
The vehicles were parked next to the temple on a residential road, where devotees usually parked when the temple's parking was full, said Moodley.
“The cars were on inside roads. They were not obstructing anything. We often see taxis parked haphazardly on main roads but nothing is done, especially on Shallcross Link Road,” added Moodley.
Even though the metro officers said they were giving out tickets for expired licence disks, when devotees came to their cars, they found tickets for parking illegally.
One angry devotee said his vehicle licence had not expired but he was still fined for parking illegally.
“I came back from the kavady and saw a R500 ticket on my windscreen. We always park here and never had these issues. It’s well-known in the area that people park on the verge when the temple has a big function.
“We never had an issue with metro, they help with controlling traffic during festivals but this time they wronged us. They should worry about the issues on Shallcross Link Road, which they overlook most times.
“I am so disappointed with metro. They disrespected us on a holy day,” said an angry devotee.
Metro spokesperson Colonel Boysie Zungu said: “According to the National Road Traffic Act, no vehicles are allowed to park on the verge or sidewalk of the road. However the matter will be investigated internally to establish what really transpired.”