Gated Communities in Gauteng

I recently had the displeasure of finding that one of my routes to the office had been closed by the residents association of the suburb i was driving through. I wasn't the only poor schmuck that was blighted by the closure. The road was crammed with people doing U-turns.

After I had vented my anger on the steering wheel of my car and finished thinking about the best way to blow up the offending gate, I started pondering what I could realistically do about it. The starting point was the "welcome to bordeaux" board that kindly gave me a web site address for the residents association. (I had plenty of time to read all the details on the board because of the mad traffic jam caused by all the closed roads).

The website was a trove of information. Email addresses and phone numbers of the all committee members; addresses... A little googleing turned up a few more details; photos, work addresses, and a facebook group. Bingo!

So, step one was a quick email to all the members (copied to the JRA and some influential radio personalities) voicing my disbelief in the closure of the roads. Step two was a post to the facebook page. I expected my complaint to be immediately put in file 13, but was surprised when the first reply popped into my inbox.

The ensuing mail storm basically revealed that they wanted the roads closed because there was too much "alien" traffic in the suburb; they believed that criminals were too stupid to use the roads that they left open and that i should just go away because it was "legal" anyway.

Ok, so crims are often fairly retarded, but i think this assumption takes the cake (we'll leave the discussion of the merits of closing suburbs for another day). Too much traffic in the suburb? I had to laugh at this one. Aren't roads supposed to be used by cars (alien or not), and anyway they are public roads. As for the legality of the closure; the chairman of the residents association was not forthcoming when i asked for the court ruling as it was "with the lawyers in whiteriver". Obviously she hadn't heard of faxes, scanners, email; which is odd since i was communicating with her via her blackberry.

It was, however, the post on facebook that returned the most interesting result... As it turns out, the residents association didn't have the backing of all of the people living in the suburb. In fact there were a lot of people living in the suburb who were opposed to the road closures. In fact they claimed that they were bullied into the closures by the committee.

Facebook also provided me with a copy of the court ruling (uploaded by one of the disgruntled residents). As pointed out by the poster, the court ruling was interpreted by the residents association the way they wanted to interpret it. In short they don't really have a leg to stand on.

So whats my point? Everything is not as it seems on the surface... if you have the misfortune of getting stuck because of a road closure, don't just accept it. Do something (that doesn't include explosives) about it!

"Throughout history it has been the inaction of those who could have acted, the indifference of those who should have known better, the silence of the voice of justice when it mattered most, that has made it possible for evil to triumph."

Footnote:

If you want to see all the details, join the facebook group "Bordeaux Residents Against Gates"