City manager a no show at Monster Meeting

RESIDENTS and community groups were stood up by city manager, Sibusiso Sithole at the Save Our Berea Monster Meeting on Tuesday night despite him agreeing to address residents at the meeting.

Sithole’s personal assistant sent an email to Save Our Berea’s Cheryl Johnson on Tuesday afternoon saying Sithole would not be attending as he would be out of town. Johnson said the Save Our Berea Workcing Committee had met with Sithole in March to discuss various concerns with him and hand over a letter of resolutions stemming from the first Monster Meeting. She said it was Sithole’s idea to attend the second Monster Meeting and address residents.

Kevin Dunkley, another driving force behind Save Our Berea told the packed St Thomas’s Church hall on Tuesday night that they had received the letter at 2.30pm on Tuesday, just hours before the much publicised meeting. “It is not acceptable. We feel a little put out, to put it lightly,” he said.

All was not lost however, Jonathan Edkins, deputy head of architecture at eThekwini Municipality, attended the meeting and was able to answer questions raised in the letter of resolution handed to the city manger, and by residents at the meeting.

With regard to the extension of the successful Urban Management Zone to the suburbs, Edkins said a strategy was in place to have the ‘green guards’ deployed to Glenwood and Umbilo in the near future.

He said the city’s goal was ‘clean, green and safe’ and it had developed an integrated development plan to deal with a pilot area in the city, which had been a great success over the past three years.

“We had positive feedback and improved cleanliness in the pilot area. The city manager decided at the end of the year to roll this project out across the city, which is a huge mandate. We have had a change of senior management and the deputy city manager in economic development and planning is making huge changes. With the new urban renewal programme there is hope for the future,” he said.

He said one of the results of the cleaning of the inner city there was that there was displacement which needed to be dealt with to eradicate it as a whole, such as the issue of vagrants.

“There needs to be places for the homeless, the institutions aren’t in place yet to nurture and rehabilitate. The processes are underway,” he said.

He said there was a definite focus on dealing with the issues raised by Save Our Berea, but it wasn’t going to happen overnight.

When questions were opened to the floor, many people commented on the problem of vagrants in the area as well as the proliferation of illegal buildings.

“Save Our Berea is concerned by the threat of inappropriate buildings, residential homes and deviations from building plans, and the fact that monstrosities are being allowed to be built. It has to stop!” said Johnson.

She thanked the residents for turning out in such big numbers.

“Save Our Berea is for residents. Without their support we cannot do this,” she said.