After years of complaints about illegal supercar drag racing along the Atlantic Seaboard, Helen Zille has finally responded to a frustrated resident demanding action.
Zille, chairperson of the DA’s federal Council acknowledged interventions by law enforcement and City traffic officials after resident Grant Richardson raised concerns.
The response comes just days after a driver in a R3 million McLaren’s high-speed crash in Sea Point went viral on social media and in the news.
Footage of the crash showed the McLaren 570S coupe being driven at a high-speed along High Level Road at an approximate speed of 200km/h before crashing.
Sea Point police confirmed they were investigating a case of reckless and negligent driving. The driver, who is a musician and content creator, and survived the crash with non-life-threatening injuries, took to his Instagram account and said there was a misunderstanding and he had tried to avoid hitting a homeless person at a traffic stop. He asked for prayers for his passenger who was still in hospital.
In January, the Cape Argus shared resident Richardson’s concerns regarding a decade-long battle to end drag racing of luxury and super cars, resulting in accidents.
Richardson has penned several letters to authorities, attaching photographs and videos of the vehicles as proof. The City earlier said in their response to Cape Argus that residents who have a complaint of this nature, to report it with traffic officials at their emergency portal while Premier Alan Winde and Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis said they could not comment as it was a municipality issue.
Emails to the DA in recent weeks, also said it was for the municipality or City’s response. Zille’s response dated, March 4,came seven weeks after Richardson’s initial emails in January. In the letter addressed to resident, Grant Richardson, which was shared with Cape Argus and on social media, Zille said: “I have gone into the matter, and I understand that there has been several interventions by the City Traffic Control team, including dedicated interventions on Sunday every night when many problems occur.”
She added that she was made aware that the City’s Safety and Security’s mayco Member, JP Smith and ward councillor, Nicola Jowell had reached out to him and was looking into solutions in upholding the by-laws. Richardson said it took Zille weeks to respond: “The response email from Helen Zille to my mail to her was senton January 18, and it took her seven weeks to respond.
“However the initial mails dated10, 11 & 19 January, addressed to John Steenhuisen, Geordin Hill-Lewis, Alan Winde and Nicola Jowell, to date remain unanswered.
“The office of Alan Winde responded by stating that Alderman JP Smith would be contacting me, needless to say, that response has also not materialised. This all begs the question: now in an elevated position of power, do our elected representatives within the Democratic Alliance feel they are no longer required to answer their constituents ?“Elections are coming up next year– the electorate will remember the years and years of pleading with various City and political representatives.
The entire situation related to road problems on the Atlantic Seaboard has worsened, year after year.”
Cape Argus