Kensington residents expressed their frustrations about lack of service delivery and the deterioration of the area at a public meeting on March 7.
The purpose of the meeting, hosted by the Kensington Ratepayers and Residents Association (KRRA), was to give the community feedback on issues raised at a meeting with City of Joburg executive mayor, Clr Herman Mashaba, late last year.
The meeting also gave officials from various departments an opportunity to answers questions from residents.
Officials invited to the meeting by the KRRA included Jenny Moodley from City Parks and Zoo, MMC for Public Safety Michael Sun and Edward Mohale, who is the head of Citizen Relationship and Urban Management (CRUM).
Only Moodley attended the meeting.
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“We need to know when the issues in the area will be resolved because the ward councillor doesn’t have the answers,” said KRRA chairperson Brendon Burmester.
“There is an increasing concern around the quality of services being offered to residents. We aimed to provide officials a chance to show residents that Kensington was being better managed by the new administration.”
Burmester provided statistics that the association has been collecting over a few months on services rendered by different departments.
“The spreadsheet lists a number of issues that are resolved and others have ‘unsure’ statuses,” Burmester explained. “This spreadsheet sets the scene for why we need interactions like this with council officials.”
The statistics included illegal businesses in the area 41 (one resolved), slum lording 33 (none resolved), building infringements 81 (four resolved), hijacked buildings 24 (none resolved), illegal signage 42 (seven resolved), service delivery issues 94 (three resolved), billing issues 15 (none resolved), illegal electricity connections two (none resolved) and JMPD seven (two resolved).
Among the issues put to Moodley were the deterioration of Rhodes Park and the overgrown state of roadside verges.
Moodly assured residents that they are aware of the challenges in the area.
“We are stretched to our limit as JCPZ because now our scope of work has been added [to] because the mayor centralises all responsibilities to JCPZ,” Moodley said. “This means we now have to look after parks and also vegetation. To some degree it has compromised our core business of looking after parks.
“Manpower is also not enough because of the number of parks we have. There are only 17 staff members for Region F as a whole and that staff has to look after all the parks in region F.”
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The residents wanted to know what plans JCPZ has in place to remedy the lack of service delivery and ensure that Rhodes Park and the area is properly kept.
The example of Green Village, and the work they do with only three staff members, was cited.
“Why is it difficult to maintain the park and the area?” Burmester asked. “Residents now have to support initiatives like Green Village to do the work that is supposed to be done by JPCZ. We pay taxes but don’t see the benefits.”
The suggestion was made by residents that JCPZ partner with Green Village and look at ways they can provide support to them.
“We are open to ideas of how we can save the park,” said Moodley. “If there are businesses in the area willing to adopt the park, they are welcome to approach us.”
Burmester encouraged residents to support Green Village with a monthly contribution of R50 to enable them to continue doing what they do.
Burmester expressed disappointment at other officials not attending the meeting.
“It is with dismay that we note only one official arrived for the meeting, and we appreciate that Moodley made the time. This meeting was called in an effort to address the appalling state of service delivery in Kensington. The stats provide a shocking of what is really happening. The no-show by central figures of the city is exactly why we sit in this situation.”
The EXPRESS made attempts to obtain comment from CoJ and sent an inquiry to the office of the mayor on Thursday, March 8 requesting comment.
At the time of publication no comment had been received.
