Editor – The first time I was invited to a meeting of the Cyrildene residents was in September 2011 and the tone of the introduction was “Here is the councillor, now feel free to attack her on issues”.
This has been the culture that has been adopted and perpetuated by certain people within this community.
At this meeting I asked the community to form a residents’ association. I offered to invite chairpersons of other residents’ associations to discuss with an elected executive committee how they run their areas so that a committee could get on its feet quickly but this offer seemed to fall on deaf ears.
This is why it was to my absolute shock that on March 27, 2014, I was blamed for the fact that Cyrildene had not had an association since I came into office.
A city councillor does not have the power to make a community form a residents’ association. Residents form residents’ associations and it is the choice of the community to do or not do this. It has been the choice of the Cyrildene residents to only elect a committee last year. To date I have only been informed of the chairperson and the secretary. Should there be a larger executive committee, I would appreciate being informed.
This is just one unfounded accusation that has been laid at my door. To my amazement I was also blamed for the chairperson and secretary not responding to my correspondence and requests for information by the DA Chief Whip. I was also blamed for officials and the JMPD not attending Sector 1 meetings. These perceptions are being perpetuated by constant misinformation being given to the community of Cyrildene and the fact that the correct information is totally disregarded.
The fact that has been communicated on more than one occasion is that the JMPD and I attend the Cleveland Community Policing Forum; the JMPD as per the instruction from their commanding officer, and not as per an instruction given by the councillor who has no legal right to do so. Sector 1 chooses not to have representation at this meeting, neither do they discuss the minutes of this meeting at sector level so no feedback reaches the community of Sector 1 regarding feedback from the JMPD.
Mr Mohale and Mr Mhlanga from Urban Management attended some of the Sector 1 meetings to try and assist with issues. They stopped coming to the meetings as it was not sustainable and requested that minutes of these meetings be sent to them. The perception that is being created is that I instructed them not to attend. This is not true and has been confirmed with Mr Mohale.
Despite requests for minutes on numerous occasions so that service delivery issues raised in this forum could be dealt with, no minutes are forwarded to me or to Mr Mohale, yet I am blamed for issues in Cyrildene that have not been reported to the city, Mr Mohale or me.
These are a couple of examples of the blame game that is being played.
Councillors have wards that have thousands of residents and multiple suburbs. I have over 15 000 residents and seven suburbs. We are also considered part time. Without cooperation from residents in reporting matters to the city, getting a reference number and then escalating it the councillors when it is not resolved, will mean that a suburb is going to deteriorate.
Councillors are also not “solve all’s”. Our successes are subjected to political will, budget allocation by the ruling party of the day, efficiencies or lack of them and corruption. This has been explained to the Cyrildene residents but, it is much easier to play the blame game than it is to be part of the solution.
I have been accused of being aggressive. In the meeting held by Cyrildene residents on January 30, I was subjected to being shouted at and verbally abused. In the meeting held on February 27, I was aggressively pointed at and practically shouted at again.
This, on top of having had defamatory comments made about me behind my back on an SMS network controlled by Sector 1. Added to this, Clr Greeff was subjected to the same behaviour in a public meeting set up by the Sector 1 Forum with her and her officials a couple of years ago.
Sadly, there is a pattern of patriarchal destructive behaviour being demonstrated by certain members of the Cyrildene community. In a society where gender-based violence is so prevalent, it is unacceptable that women, be they city councillors or members of the community, are subjected to this behaviour. I am a victim of abuse. I know what abuse is. I know what it feels like. If our male community members feel entitled to behave in such a manner in public, I would hate to know what happens behind closed doors. It is no wonder I am accused of being aggressive when all I am doing is defending myself as a woman. Because of this, I have also been forced to close a meeting with Clr Greeff to invited parties only as I am not going to have her or me spoken to in such a demeaning manner again.
This meeting will be dealing with building control and planning control issues and attending residents’ association chairpersons will have the opportunity to discuss issues in a constructive manner.
Despite all this, my door remains open for residents to send me issues with reference numbers so that their issues can be addressed.
Clr Alison van der Molen,
Ward 118.
