Van der Molen in the hot seat
Following the March 11 meeting, a resident, who did not want his name published, said she ran her meetings and addressed residents’ concerns, like those in Cyrildene for example, like she was running a “dictatorship”.
Alison van der Molen, the former ward 118 councillor, was criticised yet again for the way in which she conducted herself during a meeting with the public recently.
Just a week prior to her defecting from the Democratic Alliance (DA), Ms Van der Molen chaired a meeting attended by members of the public and City of Johannesburg (CoJ) officials.
Her actions prior and during this meeting, on March 11, were not taken lightly by residents. She told the public in her ward that only residents’ association chairpersons and one other person from their elected committees were invited.
She called this meeting after comments were made by Cyrildene residents about the lack of service delivery from the city and her apparent lack of feedback and commitment to do her job at another community gathering on January 30. There was also another meeting held in Cyrildene on February 27 by members of the Sector 1 Crime Forum in Cyrildene. She walked out of this meeting. Her comments to the EXPRESS in a letter was that she was subjected to being shouted at and verbally abused on January 30, and was aggressively pointed at and practically shouted at again on February 27.
Following the March 11 meeting, a resident, who did not want his name published, said she ran her meetings and addressed residents’ concerns, like those in Cyrildene for example, like she was running a “dictatorship”.
He said the meeting on March 11 was a good example of this as only specific people were allowed to attend, even though all residents were entitled to feedback on questions they raised.
“She did not handle this meeting well. Again, she told residents not to raise their voices. She said they should leave if they want to raise their voices. She showed she had no regard for our concerns,” said the resident.
Other residents said they were tired of her attitude, playing the blame game, telling them what, when and how they should communicate with her and report problems, instead of just doing her job.
Mr Godfrey Mothibe, the chairperson of the Cleveland Community Police Forum (CCPF) and a Cyrildene resident, said her actions at the meeting on March 11 were the same as in previous meetings.
“She did not allow people to express their frustrations freely. People were asked to raise their concerns, so why were some residents told, in a raised voice, not to speak in the manner they were speaking?
“She was trying to tell the community that she is in charge. How could she organise a feedback meeting and insist that only certain people attend? This is not how the public, one she was elected to serve, should be treated. This is not the way community affairs should be dealt with. It is things like this that cause conflict in the ward,” he said.
Mr Mothibe said a councillor cannot bulldoze the community in their own suburbs, especially when they do not live in any of the suburbs they serve.
“All residents have rights. Residents are the ones who have invested in the area and if they have concerns, they are entitled to raise them, whether it is with council or the councillor. Ms Van der Molen’s behaviour could be considered as cheap politics. Residents just want people to do what they are supposed to do, not conduct themselves in ways that show cheap politics,” said Mr Mothibe.
He also said that residents were constantly being asked to send her reference numbers for complaints logged with the city as well as provide her with lists at the recent meeting.
“This is a way of controlling residents. A councillor is the middleman between residents and council. Her ways and means of communicating with the public was wrong. If residents must prepare lists and provide reference numbers, we might as well skip the councillor and go directly to the officials. We should not be treated like children. She created conflict in certain areas, instead of building relations,” he said. The EXPRESS forwarded an enquiry, on March 14. She said she would look at the enquiry and comment. The deadline for comment was March 17. A day later she had defected and was no longer the ward 118 councillor.
