A bleak picture was painted for the community when a public meeting was called to share information and insight into the ongoings of the municipality.
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The meeting was held by Ward 18 and 19 councillors Heather Hart and Bill Rundle at Edenvale Rugby Club on February 25.
Speakers included Edenvale CPF chairperson Sheryl Damerell, Ward 18 committee member Lisa Atkins, Hart and Rundle and also in attendance was Ward 20’s Clr Jill Humphreys.
Hart spoke about her past year as MMC of city planning and gave a snapshot of how the council worked.
Other topics she discussed included backgrounds to the waste and parks crisis, potholes, homelessness, valuations and billing
“I don’t intend to totally depress you but explain what has happened and give you a way forward.”
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Topics Rundle discussed included fleet management and the Municipal Public Accounts Committee (MPAC).
Kicking the meeting off, Damerell explained that CPFs are volunteers who help bridge the gap between the community and the police.
“We don’t have any special powers. SAPS are not answerable to the CPF but they are accountable to the CPF.”
Broken into various sectors, which consist of subcommittees, Damerell said the CPF relies on the community for support and members.
She said over the year the forum has grown from strength to strength, specifically since the implementation of its camera project.
With over 50 cameras in the town, Damerell said the licence plate recognition cameras have assisted greatly in reducing crime in Edenvale.
She said at the start of the project, approximately 13 vehicles would trigger the cameras daily.
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“Now there are two or three vehicles that trigger the cameras a week.”
Damerell said despite the success of the cameras it costs R30 000 to install and maintain them for a year.
She appealed to the community for support and assistance in continuing the project and keeping the community safe.
Damerell also encouraged community members to open cases, when necessary, specifically about allegations of police corruption
“As the CPF the only way to hold those accountable is to open a case,” said Damerell.
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Ward committee member and founder of Edenvale’s volunteer group, Lisa Atkins, said over the past few months the volunteer group grew from a handful to a large group of diverse and willing people.
Since its establishment, the group has conducted over 20 clean-ups throughout town.
“The growth of the initiative could be seen at our last clean up at Edenvale Police Station where over 100 people attended.”
The group cut trees, planted aloes, mowed grass and cleared pathways.
Atkins thanked the community and sponsors for their assistance. She said looking ahead the group has plans to become established as an NPO, like Better Bedfordview.
Hart said when the coalition came into power Ekurhuleni only had eight days of cash flow.
“An R50b city to have an eight-day cash flow is critical,” said Hart.
“We found that we had a broken city, broken departments, broken staff and seriously broken bank account.”
Hart said to remedy an adjustment budget was proposed last year to reallocate funds. She said because of this the CoE was upgraded by two points by Moody.
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Speaking about the waste crisis, Hart explained that the tender for new vehicles had started in July last year already.
She said the crisis came to light in August when landfill contractors and compactor hires complained to the city that they were not being paid.
“After some digging, it was discovered that invoices were not processed. We had a backlog of R1.6b in arrears, most to waste service providers.”
According to Hart, the parks department crisis has existed for years.
She said some of the challenges the department faces include a lack of equipment and vehicles.
“As an MMC I was deployed to oversee and look at what the service delivery problems were in Kempton Park and Edenvale.
“I stopped having meetings after three of them. They brought up the same issues which were procurement, not having enough budget and critical vacancies.”
Hart described parks and waste departments as some of the worst in the city.
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Despite this, she said the waste crisis should be resolved soon, however, the parks department will need more time.
“At the moment there is no solution but we have tried.”
Highlighting the condition of roads, Hart said the two tenders were awarded last year.
The first, for patching, was awarded in March 2022 and the second for bitumen in October.
“R1m was allocated to each depot from the R20m for bitumen. This was further broken down to R100 000 allocated per ward.”
According to Hart, Edenvale’s Road depot is responsible for nine wards.
She said despite the challenges the depot manager does his best with the two pothole repair teams.
Describing homelessness as a problem which has bubbled under in the community, Hart said it has been so frustrating to solve the problem.
“We have driven a petition for more shelters but until that happens, we are going to live with the reality of people living on our streets. There is no safety net for them. EMPD can only move them along.”
In terms of billing, Hart said the lack of power and a generator during load-shedding affects the city’s ability to receive information from residents.
Highlighting valuations, she said despite surviving the increases brought about during 2021, a glitch in the system recently saw correctly assessed properties accidentally released into the system. She urged residents to bring any valuation concerns to her.
Rundle said the information he provided was based on the previous administrations of the city.
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He said the current admiration term has been too short to form a picture or give justice to what has been implemented or could take place.
“This is an R50b metro. Up to R3b is lost on water and electricity because of illegal and unmetered connections as well as criminal acts, which have been prevalent since 2011.”
He said the fleet department, responsible for keeping the municipality and departments moving, does not have an operational manager or quality inspector.
“You can go to any department and you will find that it has less than 16% of the necessary operational vehicles.
“Edenvale’s EMPD needs 18 vehicles, they have four, our waste department must have eight trucks, we are running on two.”
According to Rundle, out of the four vehicles at Edenvale Fire Station only one is operational.
“Fleet is dysfunctional and it is a huge problem.”
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Explaining MPAC, Rundle said it is the watchdog of the municipality. “We investigate, interrogate and bring people to account.”
He said it can take up to five years for disciplinary action to occur in the municipality once MPAC starts an investigation.
Elaborating on the situation and future of Edenvale, Rundle described it as being vulnerable.
He said with the uncertainty of the proposed Sizwe development across the N3, which was halted indefinitely, the development can see up to 8 000 affordable houses built and traffic diverted into Edenvale.
Additionally, Rundle said the proposed K117 could severely affect Edenvale.
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Rundle encouraged community members to join community WhatsApp groups and help work towards improving Edenvale.
Hart and Rundle may be contacted at Heather.Hart@ekurhuleni.gov.za or at Bill.Rundle@ekurhuleni.gov.za respectively.
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