Ramaphosa appoints task team to resolve issues in Alex
ALEXANDRA – 'We are giving the president's task team a week to produce the results. Issues like garbage collection and sewerage pipes fixing cannot take months'.
President Cyril Ramaphosa has established the ministerial task team who will work with the provincial and local government to resolve issues raised by residents of Alexandra.
Ramaphosa visited Alexandra after the residents had embarked on a total shutdown on 3 April, closing all roads leading in and out of the township with burning tyres and rocks, demanding better service delivery from the City of Johannesburg.
The ministerial task team which include the Minister of Human Settlements Nomaindia Mfeketho, Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Zweli Mkhize, Minister of Home Affairs Siyabonga Cwele and Minister of Small Businesses and Medium enterprise Lindiwe Zulu will have to present an interim report to the president before 19 April.
The president also tasked Gauteng Premier David Makhura to meet with Mayor Herman Mashaba to discuss a way forward in resolving and accelerating issues of service delivery in Alexandra.
Speaking to thousands of residents in Alexandra Stadium during his visit on 11 April this year Ramaphosa lashed out at Mashaba for failing to heed a call of Alex residents to come and listen to their grievances.
He said the raw sewerage flowing on the streets all over the township was an evidence that residents were not making up stories but a painful reality that they have to live with day in day out.
Sandile Mavundla, one of the leaders of the protest, said they were grateful that the president came to hear their grievances but they will not celebrate until service delivery in the area was implemented. “We are giving the president’s task team a week to produce the results.”
During the media briefing in Metro Centre on 9 April Mashaba said he will engage with residents of Alexandra and unpack his service delivery plans during the Integrated Development Plan session set to take place in Marlboro Community Hall on 15 April this year.
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