Councillors want more accountability for city entities

The City of Johannesburg municipal offices in Sandton were a hive of activity as ward councillors from Region E participated in their monthly council forum.

It was an opportunity for councillors to engage formally with city officials about issues affecting their wards, and to listen to presentations from a previously agreed-upon list of entities.

The meeting, chaired by Ward 115 councillor Mark van der Merwe, was a fascinating insight into the often out-of-the-public-eye work that councillors and the city engage in.

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Across the board, feedback from councillors was all too familiar as they raised issues that needed urgent attention. In short, service delivery is lacking. But city entities present were generally attentive and took notes of concerns with a pledge to investigate and, hopefully, attend to them timeously.

It quickly became clear, however, that few of the items raised could be dealt with by one entity alone. Input and manpower from the likes of CRUM (Citizen Relationship and Urban Management), JMPD, the police or other departments are often needed – the coordination of which often leads to delays.

In broad strokes, here is what was discussed.

City Power

City Power alluded to beginning to replace copper cables with aluminium cables and the possibility of raising cables above ground rather than underground in a bid to halt cable theft, which will go a long way to reducing unplanned outages.

City Power will also install high-rise solar-powered lighting in high crime areas to provide additional security at night time. They will also be looking at replacing older solar lighting due to the potential instability of some which may become dangerous.

In Alexandra, Ward 116 councillor Adolph Marema said he knew of more than 200 illegal connections used by spaza shops and other businesses. “City Power might put up a meter, but these are never checked to see if they are still in use. These meters are bypassed, and people are using a lot of electricity for free while others need to pay. This must be investigated,” said Marema.

Comments were also made about frustrations stemming from the removal of dedicated area contractors. The presence of these contractors made contacting the correct person for a fault or problem much easier. City Power is committed to looking into reinstating this practice.

City Parks

Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo (JCPZ) gave a detailed presentation on the process communities can follow if they want to ‘adopt a park’.
City Parks said there was a misconception that communities who go this route become de facto owners of the park who can do with the space as they please.

“This set-up is of a co-management arrangement where the JCPZ still assists with some maintenance and ensures that the space continues to be of public benefit and interest,” said JCPZ.

It was explained there needed to be a long-term benefit for the public with sustainable plans to ensure any improvements could be maintained sustainably.
Ward 73 councillor Eleanor Huggett agreed and mentioned several parks in her area that communities were looking to adopt, following the success of the James and Ethel Grey Park collaboration.

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There was much debate about how to tackle the issue of displaced persons sleeping in public parks. JCPZ acknowledged it was a difficult problem. In Ward 74, there have been several fences erected around public parks which has helped to alleviate the problem somewhat, but the displaced people just move to other nearby areas.
“Many have moved to under the storm water drains by Killarney Golf Course which does not solve the issue. We need a bigger punch from other city entities to help deal with this as several departments need to be involved because, at the moment, we are just ‘moving them around’,” said JCPZ

City Parks also made mention of plans to hopefully plant 1 000 fruit trees in Alex, probably lemon, peach and orange – trees that do not require excessive watering. “We need to green Alex and fruit trees seem an obvious solution while also providing nourishment. Some trees may be planted in the space around living quarters and homes rather than only in public areas where some may be damaged.” Feedback will be given in the coming months on this project which may begin in September as it is Arbour Month.

Joburg Roads

Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) spoke mostly about difficulties they were facing with problematic contractors hired to carry out larger construction projects.

“We regularly find that when a company has been appointed, they have a cash flow problem so cannot begin the work. Sometimes the quality of the work is not up to spec or another issue. This means we must go back to the beginning, put the job out for tender again and this all takes time – making the length of a project much longer than it should have been,” said JRA.

To mitigate this going forward, JRA hopes to soon have in place a database where ill-performing or corrupt contractors can be put on a ‘blacklist’ to prevent them from applying for tenders in the future. “This should help a lot.”

Add to this ever-dwindling resources available to the department. “When trying to operate with a budget of R70m or R80m for bridge repairs throughout the city, it is difficult. We simply cannot attend to everything that needs work done, it is just the truth of the reality we are dealing with.”

It was revealed that there was no budget currently for new traffic calming measures despite several petitions requesting speed humps or other traffic calming methods to reduce vehicle speeds.

Johannesburg Water

The Randburg depot was requested to again look at sewage running into the Klein Jukskei River, which has become a ‘river of sewage’, according to Van der Merwe. “Thousands of litres of raw sewage are pumped into the river from the continuously faulty Jukskei Pump Station with high levels of E. coli being registered. The response to this crisis has been appalling,” said Van der Merwe.

There was a motion passed for Joburg Water to relook at the day rate for general workers who are paid just above the minimum wage. JW also has a new general manager who will hopefully bring new vigour to the battling entity.

JMPD

JMPD was roundly criticised for poor by-law enforcement and monitoring. Their representative left the meeting before the question-and-answer session, so was unable to respond to concerns.

The spokesperson for JMPD Xolani Fihla did not respond to requests for comment about why the JMPD representative left the meeting early by the time of going to print.

As for city entities which do not participate in this monthly forum, there was a unanimous call from all the councillors present that there needs to be some form of consequence going forward.

This journalist will follow up with individual stories about specific points mentioned to provide details to this general article in due course.

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