A group of men is using a Lentegeur street as a makeshift football pitch, while residents complain of noise, cracked roof tiles, broken windows and threats.
Elizabeth Meyer says residents have complained many times to the authorities about rowdy ball play in Appeliefie Road but the problem persists.
When law enforcement came out, the men vanished, she said.
The men had kicked the ball into her backyard on Monday and had threatened to break her windows when she had refused to return it, she said.
They had then run off when law enforcement had come out.
Ms Meyer said her husband came home from work tired and needed peace and quiet, but the couple could not hear each other or watch television when there was a match outside.
“It is getting out of hand. More of these guys are coming to play here, and we can say nothing,” she said.
Her neighbour, Marchia Sebastian, said she was tempted to return to her old neighbourhood of Tafelsig because she and her family got no rest.
The men would swear at anyone who asked them to stop, and their behaviour was having a bad influence on the neighbourhood’s children, she said.
Balls kicked over her wall had shattered a glass door and dislodged tiles.
“I’m in two minds about fixing the glass,” she said.
She did not hang laundry when the men were playing football for fear the ball would soil it, she said.
A neighbour, who did not want to be named, said the men had kicked loose an outside burglar bar and trespassed on her property.
She will be moving soon.
“We have tried everything, even a street committee, and we’ve spoken to them, but they are just so brazen,” she said.
The ward councillor, Goawa Timm, said she had sought help from several City departments.
“They are rude and they smoke dagga. I don’t know what to do. There is nothing I can do.”
By-laws prohibited ball kicking in a residential area because of the disturbance it caused, she said.
A “no ball kicking and loitering” sign had been stolen the day after it had been put up two weeks ago, she said.
Wayne Dyason, spokesman for City law enforcement, said they attended to the complaints they received.
Lentegeur police station spokeswoman Constable Felicia Adams said they would send police to do regular patrols in the area.
