Residents of ward 66 are unhappy with the level of service delivery in the area by the City of Joburg (CoJ).
“Once again I find myself having to go to extreme measures to get service delivery in my ward. Residents need to feel that they are getting their money’s worth,” said the ward 66 councillor, Clr Carlos Da Rocha.
In response, the Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo spokesperson, Ms Jenny Moodley, said City Parks has been actively addressing Clr Da Rocha’s concerns.
According to Clr Da Rocha, besides the Pikitup strike, the CoJ has been failing in all departments with regards to rendering services to the residents.
“Residents need to be heard. Parks are now practically non-existent.
“I have been pleading, for months, for City Parks to cut the grass in ward 66, including Bertrams, Bez Valley, Kensington and Observatory. My requests are not heard.
“There are two huge sections of the Rhodes Park palisades that are broken, leaving the park once again vulnerable to criminals who can make the park dangerous and unsafe. This after all the effort we went through to secure the park,” said Clr Da Rocha.
He accused City Parks of not caring.
According to Clr Da Rocha, the response he received from City Parks was not pleasing.
“The response I received, when I pleaded for City Parks to cut back dangerous trees overhanging and falling into the main road on North Avenue, was that they already spent too many resources in ward 66 and the ward is not the only ward in the city,” he said.
He said the situation is deteriorating and there is no accountability to the rate payers.
According to Ms Moodley, City Parks has been actively addressing Clr Da Rocha’s concerns.
“Ward 66 has about 10 suburbs with 11 parks at a total of 86 hectares – one flagship facility maintained on a seven day cycle and eight developed facilities maintained monthly.
“The main challenge is this ward has a need to maintain the sidewalks and main arterials. Since the beginning of the third quarter, which is considered our highest peak season, most of the resources have been committed to this ward because of the demands from the ward councillor.
“We must keep in mind that the relevant region has 19 wards in total and the minimal resources we have need to be spread evenly across the region,” said Ms Moodley. She appealed to councillors to register their concerns via the Joburg Connect Call Centre on 011 375-5555.
“This will ensure that requests are logged and monitored to ensure it is resolved within the committed turnaround times, as per the commitments made by the various entities in line with the City of Joburg’s Customer Charter adopted by councillors.
“Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo is a labour-intensive organisation and is only capable of addressing service delivery based on the availability of its existing resources.
We appeal to councillors to sensitise their constituents that there are 130 wards in the city and each of these wards should be serviced equally.
“Typically, in your more developed areas, greening will take precedence while in under-developed areas, lifeline services such as water, sewer systems, housing and such issues take priority.
“Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo’s mandate is to provide a balanced service offering to all its residents on the backdrop of the growing social-economical challenges faced in the city,” said Ms Moodley.
