The City of Cape Town has been slammed for issuing a written warning to a 116-year-old mosque over a noise complaint.
The Muhammadiyah Mosque in Tennyson Street, Salt River, has been asked to turn down the volume after the City received a complaint from a resident about a noise nuisance that goes against the Western Cape Noise Control Regulations.
The letter issued by Estelle Thyssen, the City’s Senior Technician: Noise Control, dated 12 May, states: “You are hereby requested as owner or occupant of this premises or the person responsible for the noise or all such persons, to mitigate the amplified sound from the Mosque with immediate effect.
“The request is made in good faith and the Department does seek for this complaint to be resolved amicably.”
Instead of exempting places of worship from the noise pollution by-law, the City recently simply updated its Standard Operating Procedure (SOP), asking officials to be “more sensitive”.
In a statement two weeks ago, Mayco member for Safety and Security JP Smith said: “The City’s updated SOP on noise complaints stipulates that designated officials must ensure sensitivity and care in consulting a place of worship on any regulatory noise abatement measures as may be necessary, so as not to inhibit religious freedom.”
The City’s updated SOP states that the noise nuisance aspect shall not apply to places of worship “within appropriate zoning”.
But the mosque committee says the City is playing word games while the law appears to remain unchanged.
Spokesperson Anwar Omar says: “The City made a ruling that all religious places of worship will be exempted from noise pollution charges but after receiving the letter, we have seen that this is an incorrect perception.
“Instead of the places of worship being exempted, the City has simply changed the protocol in what can only be called a more ‘sensitive’ manner.”
Omar says the mosque has been around since 1906 and this is the first time in its history that they’ve received a written warning regarding the athaan.
“In all the years of the mosque’s existence, the call to prayer has been made five times a day and we have never had major issues with the community. There have been a few verbal complaints, particularly in the summer when prayers are at 4.30am and during that time we have dropped the decibels to a more acceptable level.
“We have a good relationship with the community so this letter has completely come out of the blue.”
A meeting will be held tomorrow night between the mosque committee and the mayor.
According to Patrica van der Ross, Mayco member for Community Services and Health, the letter was a mistake: “I will arrange a training session for our officials to train them on the City’s new standard operating procedure on complaints relating to places of worship.
“Given how new this SOP is, not all staff have been sensitised to its requirements. No further letters of this sort will go out.”