Hart’s 2021 highlights

Alderman Heather Hart of Ward 18 described the year as being on a rollercoaster while running on a treadmill.

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“The year went past in a flash,” said Hart.

For Hart the year kicked off with the Delta strain of Covid-19, which brought home the reality that the pandemic was far from over.

“The new norm was working from home, having virtual meetings and as little contact with people as possible.”

Hart said this not only hampered service delivery but kept councillors away from meetings with officials, with residents, from holding ward committee and CPF meetings from being held.

“This made many residents feel isolated and neglected, especially those without access to social media,” said Hart.

Hart described the 2021 to 2025 Ekurhuleni Property Valuation Roll as the overriding issue of 2021.

“Residents were hit with staggering increases and then with very little to no information from the metro itself,” said Hart.

“They had to rely on the information coming from councillors via social media and our local papers like Bedfordview Edenvale News.”

Hart said as always people left the objections to the last minute.

However, defending the objectors, she said many only heard about it at the ninth hour.

“We had long queues snaking around the customer care centres with elderly and pregnant mothers standing in the heat of the day until the municipal valuer appointed extra staff to speed up the process.”

Hart said to add insult to injury, the municipality used Section 50 of the Act instead of Section 78 to backdate levies for the properties omitted from the valuation roll.

“Despite the information provided by the City of Ekurhuleni, I am not aware of any objector who has yet received an outcome to their objection and we still have no idea of when the supplementary roll will appear,” said Hart.

“So here we are 10 months after the valuation roll was published with no idea of the outcome and I can only see this chaos and frustration spilling over into 2022.”

Speaking on the homelessness in Edenvale, Hart thanked Edenvale customer care centre manager Khosi Dlamini for the persistence of the Consalves Road residents and Julia Kendall in particular.

She said the metro undertook a massive cleanup operation along the Eastleigh Spruit in light of the persistence of the Consalves Road community.

“While some of the squatters are still there, the metro is monitoring the situation. The reality is that until we have a proper policy and the province is funding more shelters, the homeless living on our streets will remain with me and have to be continually monitored.

Regarding Horwood’s farm upgrade, she said although phase one and two was completed earlier this year, the park remains closed.

Hart explained that it took some time for the snag list to be done due to the pandemic.

“With the completion of the snag list, I have battled until now to get the park open, which will hopefully happen sometime in December.”

Hart highlighted that the Environmental Department fast-tracked the phase three upgrade to the dam project, which meant the removal of the squatters and recyclers.

“This was also a massive operation and the project is well on track, but being hampered by payment delays to the contractor.”

Identifying several smaller victories throughout the year, Hart congratulated Samukelo Radebe and Luke Bondonno from Edenvale Lions Basketball Academy who signed with Westlake Preparatory School and Academy in Florida, America.

She also welcomed brothers Dean and Matthew Backos who are leasing Edenvale’s skatepark.

“The facility has been cleaned up making it a lot safer and more pleasant to visit.”

Similarly, she thanked the residents of De Klerkshof for cleaning the nearby park and for providing information to authorities that led to drug-related arrests.

Hart said while Edenvale’s refuse was collected and street lights repaired, urban decay impacted the town and community’s psyche.

“Potholes and weeds are the biggest contributors to urban decay in Edenvale,” said Hart.

“I became quite depressed driving around Edenvale and at times traumatised by the ever-increasing pleas for help knowing that there was so little I could do,” said Hart.

“Underfunding when it comes to performing service delivery was blamed on the pandemic, as so many departments battled to maintain previous levels of service delivery.”

Combined with urban decay was Hart’s continuous battle with the recyclers that strip and dump materials they collect specifically in Eastleigh.

Another overriding issue was the increase in illegal building and land use in Edenvale.

“This wasn’t helped by the HOD for City Planning issuing a directive forbidding officials from liaising directly with councillors making it almost impossible to escalate and follow up on any of these serious town planning contraventions,” said Hart.

“That together with a lack of outdoor advertising inspectors, and not being able to interact with officials meant that illegal buildings, illegal land use and illegal advertising went unchecked,” said Hart.

Besides the highs and lows of the year, Hart said 2021 was also the year the municipal elections were held.

“Trying to campaign and assist in escalating service delivery issues was no easy task,” said Hart.

“I am grateful and humbled by the continued faith in the community, which was reflected in the 80% support I received.”

With the holidays approaching, Hart wished the community a peaceful and safe holiday period and a happy 2022.

“I look forward to next year as we bring change to Edenvale together.”

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