Make a Joyful Noise, but leave the neighbours out of it!

Article via The Star newspaper

Residents pray for end to noise from churches

God isn't deaf. This is the message Yeoville residents in Johannesburg are sending out to church leaders in the area.

In three different complaints received by The Star, residents claim that informal churches in residential areas are disturbing the peace at night and over weekends and that life has become a misery.

They claim that the constant singing and shrieking through church loudspeakers is driving them insane.

People living around Harrow Road, Berea, have sent a petition to the City of Johannesburg claiming that the Tent Church is creating massive problems. The church operates out of a marquee on the corner of Harrow and Abel roads.

So bad is the problem, residents claim, that many have resorted to buying earplugs and taking tranquillisers at night to get some sleep.

Danny Herzberg said that for two years residents had been subjected to the screams of the pastor and the choir every day of the week.

They are also unhappy about the traffic jams caused in Abel Road by congregants.

"We have appealed to everyone for assistance - from the metro police to the SAPS - but no one will help."

"We have also appealed to the pastor himself, with no results. We are at our wits' end. Some residents are buying earplugs," he said.

Herzberg is questioning why the tent has been allowed to become a permanent structure in a residential area.

"All we want is to live in peace. We have no objections because we are sure that our Creator, in which we all believe, is not deaf," he said.

Pastor Owen McGregor of the National Pentecostal Church (Tent Church) said the church had been operating there since 1990.

"We are aware that sound travels through the tent and we do our best to keep the noise levels down. We don't want to antagonise the community because we are there to serve them, but some are being unreasonable," he said.

Resident, Mary White, also complained of a noisy church that operates from the Bedford Centre in Yeoville. "They have ruined our weekends for about four to five months now," she said.

Another resident, who would not be named, said residents had a similar problem in Yeoville with a church that has been established in someone's garage.

Johannesburg metro police department (JMPD) spokesperson Wayne Minnaar said there was no law prohibiting the establishment of a church on private property.

However, if the noise from the church was creating a disturbance, this was a violation of the by-laws and should be reported to the JMPD.