A few residents in Eden Road, Observatory are lamenting “noise levels” at the local Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witness Church and are calling for congregants to be “considerate and mindful of the neighbours living in the area”.
According to a notice board outside the church, services take place throughout the week.
According to resident Ashlene van Reenen, who lives opposite the church, some of the congregants are “loud and make a noise”.
She explains that this happens after the church is dismissed and while congregants gather outside the church.
“The congregants often arrive late and make a lot of noise and bang their car doors. In their courtyard before and after church they have loud conversations. After church the congregants also have selfie sessions and often group together and stand talking for hours very loudly.”
Van Reenen says all they are asking for is for the noise levels to “subside”.
“We are calling for the noise levels to subside and for them to have respect and to be considerate of the neighbours. We sent an email to the church, so we made sure that everybody there know about the issue that we have. We have families that work 12-hour night shifts and who work from home, and this impacts their daily lives.”
Van Reenen says she is at her wits end.
“One night I had to go out at 22:00 as one of their cars were parked right next to our property.
“My nephew called me and told me he cannot sleep, so I had to go outside and speak to them. But they completely ignored me.”
She adds: “When they are inside the church during services, we don’t hear anything. We don’t even hear the music in the church. But once the church is out and they stand and congregate outside and make a noise.
According to Van Reenen, this sometimes continues for “hours”.
Van Reenen lives a few metres away from the IbaaDur-Ragmaan Mosque also in Eden Road. But according to her, she “doesn’t even hear the athaan” (call to prayer).
“I have approached Mr Lawrence (a congregant) at the church, and I made him aware of our discomfort. He said they have no leader at the church, but do have a board on which he will make sure they are aware of our discomfort and that it may take time as the groups at the church change every day.”
Another resident, Geoffrey Louw, says: “They start shouting at each other as soon as the church comes out, cars honking and alarms going off very frequently. It is a disturbance, there are people living here. This happens throughout the week whenever they have services. We are just asking them for some respect and to be neighbourly.”
One resident, who wants to remain anonymous, says: “I never hear anything. I mean this is a street, many people make a noise here. Especially at night when people return home from a night out at the bars in the Main Road.”
Eckhart Woermann says: “I have no issues with them and no issues with my neighbours. I am very tolerant. When people come out of a church it’s the end of something and there’s excitement.”
In April this year the City of Cape Town updated it’s Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) to confirm that ‘noise nuisance’ complaints do not apply to places of worship with appropriate zoning.
This effectively means the “noise nuisances” section of Cape Town’s streets, public places, and prevention of noise nuisances by-law does not apply to places of worship operating within an appropriate zoning.
Mzamo Goloda, national spokesperson for the church, says the church respects the view and feelings of their neighbours.
“We feel very sad about the complaint of making noise for our neighbours before and after our worship meetings at the Observatory Kingdom Hall of Jehovah’s Witnesses. We are determined to take extra care and measures to continue having a peaceful relationship which we so much appreciate with the neighbours.”
He says: “Jehovah’s Witnesses are fully committed to the fact that everyone deserves peace, that is why the theme of our annual 2022 virtual Convention is “Pursue Peace”.”
