Noise pollution rears ugly head in Harare

20 Mar, 2016 - 00:03 0 Views
Noise pollution rears ugly head in Harare The use of megaphones in vending is rampant in down-town Harare

The Sunday Mail

Whilst Harare City, with an ambitious pay-off line to become a world-class city by 2025, has somehow managed to tame the traffic jungle that had become the hallmark of the city’s CBD, another monster seems to have reared its ugly head.

Noise pollution.

Almost every other shop in town has taken to playing music to an unwilling audience through loud speakers, all in the name of wooing shoppers.

And not to be outdone are the street vendors, among them memory card, sim card, earphones, rat and insect killer sellers – probably sensing a defeat by the loudspeakers from the shops – who have resorted to wailing their wares off megaphones.

The cacophony is not pleasant to any human ear, let alone a human ear in a CBD setting.

The chief culprit in breaking the noise by-laws has to be the supermarket opposite the former Ximex Mall, along Jason Moyo Avenue.

Shops have resorted to blaring music from their shop fronts to attract customers, in violation of city by-laws

Shops have resorted to blaring music from their shop fronts to attract customers, in violation of city by-laws

When the shop manager is in a good mood, for that should be about the apt description, they mount their loud speakers outside the shop and have a DJ spin some wicked tunes.

What with dancehall music in the mix these days!

Probably having borrowed from the exploitation of their ears by the said supermarket, the cellphone vendors that loiter around the former Ximex shopping mall, on any other day of the week, take turns to blare music from the boots of their cars.

The noise nuisance around that area, then perhaps, becomes an acquired syndrome.

Quite contrastingly, the Joina City complex which is a spitting distance from the supermarket is a tranquil environment and offers shoppers an unperturbed shopping atmosphere.

If any shopper has to come across any music in the shopping mall, it will be playing softly and caressingly from any of the boutiques within the mall.

Stepping out of Joina City (where Freeman, the dancehall musician, unwittingly sang about wanting to spend a night, in spite of an absence of booking rooms nor a hotel), and into Julius Nyerere Way, the serenity of the city suddenly dies away, especially at the intersection of Nyerere Way and Robert Mugabe Road.

Quite ironic that where two roads, named after such iconic African sons of the soils, meet is an epicenter of confusion, noise and obtrusion.

The four corners that converge to make the intersection of the two roads form probably one of the busiest points in the city, at any given time.

Walking down Robert Mugabe Road, towards the western direction, one gets deeper into the madness that is now Harare City.

The noise levels become more pronounced and uninhibited. Especially the area where the Mbare kombis regularly tout for passengers – it is a mixture of loudness from the touts, the loud speakers from the shops and, the megaphone-selling rat killers.

But if you haven’t had enough of the nuisance and noise, a few steps down Robert Mugabe will take you to the corner with Mbuya Nehanda Street, where Budiriro and Glen View kombis have it as their own haven. As if the decibels from the touting kombis is not enough, the four, five or six shops to the eastern side of the shoe outlet, add up the levels. Each of the said six neighbouring shops has a loudspeaker – of course blaring loud music. Or is it noise?

As if to mask themselves from being charged for flouting city by-laws, the shops place their loud speakers inside their shops, to give the impression that the noise being emitted is for the benefit of their shoppers inside. But one cannot mistake that the decibels are meant to entice passing pedestrians.

A few metres from the noise and confusion that is at the corner of Robert Mugabe Road and Mbuya Nehanda Street, at the corner of Mbuya Nehanda and Bute Streets, some serenity creeps in as one walks into either of the two fast foods outlets there. However, upon stepping out, the madness comes back.

This is where the mushika-shika menace, which the City Fathers have always threatened to wipe out, comes hard onto your face. The mushika-shika guys do not usually persuade “their” passengers into their vehicles. If what they do is some form of persuasion, then it is only in their wisdom that they find that the persuasion has to be in high-pitched voices. And they make an excellent work of it.

The mushika-shika touts aside, occupiers of the nearby Gulf Complex have also found it within their right to use noise to market their wares. Quite interesting that a shop selling fake hair pieces or some fake Asian phones has to use sungura or dancehall music to lure shoppers. One would expect, if any loud luring device were to be used, such a device would inform would-be shoppers and passers-by of the “specials” in-store.

One or two shops downtown seem to have perfected that art, of using an in-store DJ to “inform” passers-by and would-be customers of their specials. Sitting on a speaker, right at the entrance of the shop, the DJ – in-between bouts of loud music – occasionally yells out that particular day’s one-dollar specials.

Whereas the Jason Moyo Avenue supermarket takes to using DJs usually on weekends, especially Saturdays, the shop opposite the blue toilets along Leopold Takawira Street, has a DJ on the mike almost every minute that the shop is open.

If you cannot beat them, why not join them? The shoe outlet across the road seem to have joined the bandwagon – here and there they place their speakers strategically “within” their shop and blow it away.

Where Bute and Julius Nyerere converge is another hotspot for noise pollution, with the myriad of vendors there using whatever form of noise they can to lure customers. The megaphone, the open voice, combined with the touts for Epworth/Overspill/Dombo kombis make that part of town a no-go area, if one has tender ear drums.

In typical spokesperson style, Mr Michael Chideme, Harare City Council’s mouthpiece, said it is illegal for anyone to be seen flouting any city by-laws, the noise one included.

“Anyone caught on the wrong side of the law,” he added, rather tongue-in-cheek, “will be prosecuted.”

Sure, if Harare City is to arrest all those flouting the noise by-laws downtown, then by 2025, it will be a world-class city!

. . . Excerpts of the Harare (Noise) By-Laws, 2014

  1. Subject to the provisions of Section 6 no person shall –

(a) operate or cause or permit to be operated any wireless, loudspeaker, gramophone, record-player, amplifier, musical instrument or similar device so as to disturb or interfere with the rest, peace or tranquillity of any occupier of premises in the neighbourhood or in any public street, or in any public place; or

(b) operate, or cause, or permit to be operated for the purpose of advertising, any wireless, loudspeaker, gramophone, record-player, amplifier, musical instrument or similar device in the neighbourhood in or adjacent to any public street or public place, without the prior written consent of the Council; or

(c) make any noise or disturbances, by shouting, yelling or blowing upon any wind instrument, beating upon any drum or other instrument, article or device, or by any other means, which the noise or disturbances disturbs or interferes with the rest, peace or tranquillity of any occupier of premises in the neighbourhood or in any public place or public street.

6 (1) Any person may submit an application for a temporary noise permit for a community event or promotional event.

(2) The application made in terms of subsection (1) shall be made in writing to the director and shall contain the following:

  1. a) name and address of the applicant

(b) description of the event

(c) location of the event

(d) a description of the source of sound and level of sound for which the temporary noise permit is sought; and

(e) times of day and the period of time (not in excess of six (6) months) for which temporary

noise permit shall be granted.

(3) An application made in terms of subsection (1) above shall be accompanied by such application fee as may from time to time be prescribed by council.

(4) Upon the application being granted, the applicant shall pay such Temporary Noise Fee as may from time to time be prescribed by council.

  1. (1) An authorised person may impound any equipment, gadget or machinery used in contravention of any provision of these by-laws.

(2) The equipment, gadgets or machinery so impounded shall be taken to a secure compound designated for such purpose by Council.

(3) The equipment so impounded shall only be released upon the owner paying the prescribed penalty and such removal and storage charges as prescribed by Council from time to time.

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