adminSukulwenkosi Dube Plumtree Correspondent
PLUMTREE residents have petitioned the town council over new by-laws which they want amended or repealed on grounds that they are “harsh.”
Opposition to the new measures were expressed recently at consultative meetings called by the Plumtree Residents’ Association in all the town’s six wards.
Some residents said the by-laws on lands and natural resources, licensed premises and dog licensing were a reversal of the freedoms ushered in by the liberation struggle.
“These laws are just harsh. They entail a lot of restrictions that infringe on our freedom. We are now being restricted from keeping puppies and our desired number of dogs. We are being told that we are not to allow our dogs to whine or bark persistently or stray into our neighbour’s houses.
“If these issues are an offence then it means we should stop owning dogs altogether. A dog barks by its nature so how are we expected to stop them from doing that. The dog licensing fees are also too much and so are the kennel charges,” said a resident.
The town council has pegged the minimum dog licensing fee at $10 per year plus a $20 fee for written permission to have one from council.
Kennel charges were pegged at $20 for the first 24 hours and $5 for every subsequent 24 hours. It has also restricted the number of dogs to two in small yards and four in bigger yards.
Plumtree Residents’ Association secretary Bolsheviks Ndlovu said they had submitted to the local authority a petition rejecting the by-laws.
“The natural resources by-law is restricting people from having fields within the town or developing areas which are outside their yards. Under the licensed premises by-law people are now being charged high rental fees and there are a lot of unnecessary requirements which one has to meet in order to rent business property,” said Ndlovu.
However, Plumtree Town Secretary Davis Dumezweni Luthe said the regulations were fair. “These laws are standard and they serve to improve the state of the town. This petition has not been formally submitted to me yet. I do not even know about these consultative meetings which were being held in wards and I am not sure what the Plumtree Residents’ Association committee members want to achieve because everything is transparent,” he said.
derick.khumalo