Statement by Brett Herron,
GOOD Mayoral Candidate for the City of Cape Town
30 September 2021
In May or June 2019, in the middle of the holy month of Ramadaan, someone lodged a noise nuisance complaint against the 100 year old Zeenatul Mosque in District Six for the call to prayer, the Athaan.
The City served notice on the Mosque after it conducted two tests – a decibel reading and what they called a “reasonable person” test. The call to prayer did not fall foul of the decibel reading threshold for noise nuisance but the City relied on the “reasonable person” test to determine that the call to prayer did constitute “noise nuisance” and thus was in breach of the Western Cape Noise Control Regulations and the City’s bylaw.
A similar incident occurred in Paarl where a noise nuisance complaint was lodged against the equally historic Toringkerk – one of the oldest churches in South Africa, which was stopped by the DA-run Drakenstein Municipality from ringing its church bells after a noise nuisance complaint.
I am confident that the vast majority of the people living in Cape Town and Paarl, for that matter, are likely to consider that church bells and the Athaan being declared a noise nuisance is absurd and intolerant.
Governments who receive these kinds of complaints need to consider the protection of religion and culture in our constitution and also the role of culture and religion in building a socially cohesive and integrated city or town based on respect for our diversity and tolerance of legitimate and deeply historic practices.
The Western Cape Noise Control Regulations determine what constitutes a noise nuisance and empowers local governments to take action when there is a legitimate noise nuisance complaint.
The regulations also empower local governments to exempt certain sounds and venues from the regulations.
The City of Cape Town, and the Drakenstein Municipality, thus have the power to exempt Mosques and Churches from the noise control regulations if they choose to.
Following the complaint against the Zeenatul Mosque in 2019, and the righteous outcry over the City’s legitimization of a complaint that the Athaan was a “noise nuisance” the City’s DA leadership made a public commitment to include an exemption, from the noise control regulations, for the Athaan and church bells. This commitment was made by the DA Mayoral Committee Member for Community Services, Zahid Badroodien.
Also, in May 2019, Mzwakhe Nqavashe, the DA Chairperson of the Safety & Security Committee in the City of Cape Town confirmed to New Frame (“Gentrification and the Athaan” 23 May 2019) that these proposed amendments were being considered and that he predicted a 60 day public consultation process on amending the bylaw would commence in February 2020 with the amendments passing in June 2020.
In 2020 when the amendments to the “STREETS, PUBLIC PLACES AND THE PREVENTION OF NOISE NUISANCES AMENDMENT BY-LAW” were published for public consultation, I submitted comments on the proposed amendments. I pointed out that the 2019 commitment to address religious sounds as “noise nuisance” was absent from the proposed amendments and that the amendment of the by-law should include these exemptions as promised.
Yesterday the DA led City Council adopted the amended bylaw. The amendments did not include the noise nuisance exemption as promised. This leaves religious sounds, like the Athaan and church bells, vulnerable to being declared a noise nuisance and Mosques and Churches to being ordered to stop “making a noise”.
This is a gross breach of trust and the DA leadership have acted in bad faith.
The bylaw that was adopted focused almost exclusively on legitimising the criminalisation of homelessness. That in itself is unconscionable.
But the failure to honour their commitment to the Muslim community, made in 2019, leaves the Athaan a potential “noise nuisance”.
An exemption would have been a simple addition of one line into Section 3 of the bylaw.
The Mayor has issued a hair-splitting statement trying to suggest that the amendments yesterday do not criminalise or outlaw the Athaan. That is correct. The amendments don’t deal with noise nuisance at all – leaving the Athaan and Chuch Bells vulnerable to further noise nuisance complaints.
There is no reasonable explanation for the DA’s failure to address the noise nuisance sections of the bylaw since they were busy with drafting amendments. There is no reasonable explanation for why this must wait until next year.
The commitment to address this was made in 2019. That commitment was dishonoured. Clearly the promises were made for the purpose of pacifying those who were outraged by the noise nuisance complaint.
Once the outrage died down the DA leadership got on with amending the bylaw to focus on the homeless.
There is an absence of moral leadership at the heart of our city administration. They are undermining the social cohesion of our city and damaging our city’s soul.
The bylaw should have been amended to exempt legitimate and centuries old religious practices such as the Athaan and the ringing of bells as a noise nuisance. But they didn’t and their attempts to explain this are not plausible.
For media enquiries, please contact
Ms Fiona Furey, GOOD Communications Director for Cape Town Mayoral Candidate
Cell: 0722455803
Email: fionaf@forgood.org.za