City will clamp down on illegal and unsafe events
05 March 2021
Statement by the Mayoral Committe for Safety and Security, Alderman JP Smith.
Last night, the City of Cape Town’s Law Enforcement, along with SAPS, shut down an illegal event at a school in the CBD. The organiser was fined R4 000 for contravening multiple laws.
The organiser of the gathering, with roughly 300 people in attendance, had no permit as required by the City’s Events By-law and the national Safety at Sports and Recreational Events Act.
The illegal event was held in the school’s unused swimming pool that had been converted into a skate park.
It also contravened the Liquor Act by serving alcohol without a liquor licence and flouted noise pollution regulations.
In addition, the organiser had no health and safety protocols in place. These protocols are aimed at curbing the spread of Covid-19 and are in accordance with the Disaster Management Act regulations.
Current regulations, gazetted on 28 February 2021, only allow for gatherings with a maximum of 100 people for indoor facilities and 250 attendees for outdoor gatherings.
While the City supports the return of events and will continue to play its role as an enabler, it is important that gatherings are hosted in a safe environment that is in accordance with the law.
Illegal events endanger the lives of patrons as a result of the lack of security and crowd management, to name but a few.
Unregulated events during a pandemic are a major health risk that could become super spreaders of Covid-19.
This poses a major risk for the Events industry’s recovery if we allow unregulated events to trigger more national government restrictions on gatherings.
Our law enforcement agencies will be on stand-by to clamp down on any non-compliant events and to issue fines to the organisers.
The Events Permit Office is ready and prepared to provide support to event organisers who want to host legal events.
The City has developed Protocols for Hosting Safe Events during Covid-19, which guides event organisers on the procedures to follow in order to secure a permit.
This will ensure that all patrons, officials and participants at events are protected.
The protocols are available on the City’s website.
For assistance from the event permit office, send an email to events.permit@capetown.gov.za
Published by:
City of Cape Town, Media Office
