The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Ekurhuleni is calling on the City manager, Imogen Mashazi, and the executive mayor, Mzwandile Masina, to suspend the head of Department of Environmental Resources and Waste Management, Faith Mabindiza, and is requesting the removal of Khosi Mabaso as the MMC for Environment and Waste Management.
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According to DA leader in Ekurhuleni Phillip de Lange, Mabindiza has been restricting information and communication to ward councillors with regards to service delivery, severely hampering the ability of councillors to effectively assist the communities they serve.
“In fact, she has left numerous service delivery groups, further preventing information such as collection times and backlog updates from reaching the ward councillors.
“This subsequently leaves residents in the dark regarding complaints and issues which they have escalated to the relevant councillor,” he said
De Lange added the increasing number of allegations against Mabindiza which are:
• Her leaving her position in Tshwane metropolitan municipality under a cloud of controversy.
• She also worked as a depot manager in Kempton Park, which saw the collapse of waste in that area, before she was appointed as the HOD.
• It’s further alleged that she does not have the necessary qualifications to effectively perform her job.
• In addition, Mabindiza is purported to be receiving tenders from the metro, of which the DA will be writing a letter to the city manager requesting an investigation into this matter.
“Including her inability to effectively execute her job, which has led to the near collapse of the refuse removal services across the metro, we believe that the metro should immediately suspend her and launch an investigation into these matters,” said de Lange
He added that Masina must remove Mabaso from her position as she failed to hold Mabindiza to account for her poor performance in the waste department, at the expense of service delivery to the people.
“Skip bins have only been collected once this year according to residents, who are growing increasingly tired of the lack of service delivery by the metro.”
Ekurhuleni metro’s spokesperson Themba Gadebe said: “The metro acknowledges the challenges experienced recently with regard to waste removal in Kempton Park.
“However, the metro has done a tremendous progress in stabilising the services in both Kempton Park and other affected areas in Ekurhuleni, and waste collection is currently continuing smoothly across the City.”
He added that the metro apologies to all residents for the inconvenience caused.
