Brakpan Town Committee meeting gets heated

The Brakpan Town Committee’s monthly meeting at Cosy Corner in Brenthurst last Thursday evening was marred by mudslinging and criticism from the community.

After the meeting was opened and the previous minutes accepted, disruption ensued when the floor was opened to questions from the community.

What was initially supposed to be a 30-minute question session turned into an hour and a half of residents airing their grievances and criticising the councillors and committee chairperson, William Douglas.

People felt that they don’t receive adequate feedback and that the issues discussed at the meetings are never resolved.

Again, questions were raised about how many refuse removal trucks are available to Brakpan and how many are needed. Ward 97 Clr Brandon Pretorius responded that eight trucks are needed to render services, but only two are operational.

According to Pretorius, an adjustment budget has been proposed to the council to replace broken trucks, as upkeep was not maintained under the previous administration. Due to disruptions in council, the budget hasn’t been approved, halting progress.

With regards to the Plastic City informal settlement, there was a suggestion for the community to remove the settlement residents themselves, but a member of AfriForum reminded attendees that forcibly removing the residents is illegal and inciting people to do so is grounds for charges of incitement of public violence.

Many residents repeatedly raised questions about water supply, electricity problems outside of load-shedding, and the state of the roads in Brakpan.

One attendee suggested that councillors table a motion to have large mining trucks banned from travelling through the town as they damage the roads that were not designed to carry the weight.

There were concerns raised about interim readings and lost units during load-shedding. The councillors requested residents who have experienced these issues to talk to them after the meeting about the way forward.

One attendee raised concerns about the recycling trolleys being a danger on the road, to which a solution could not be found.

Several attendees suggested that municipal HODs and management from the municipality be present at future meetings so they can be made aware of the public’s concerns and grievances. The councillors promised to attempt to organise this.

In terms of the meeting’s agenda, Pretorius reported the Weltevreden Landfill Site will be open by the end of March, should contracting be successful.

The councillors also revealed that they tabled a motion to have a new fleet of trucks for refuse removal hired temporarily until the broken fleet can be replaced.

They have again faced obstacles in council with approval being blocked.

SDS Protection, the new security contractor for the city, has been deployed to patrol power stations and substations to curb theft and vandalism.

The councillors and AfriForum will engage with SAPS and the EMPD regarding cable theft at the next SAPS stakeholder meeting.

Regarding the identification and removal of drug houses, PR Clr Riaan van Zyl revealed that there was a list of houses and that operations to deal with them have started. There has also been an average of 20 arrests per week made.

The local sewage plant is now fully operational and councillors are working on arranging a programme to clean town entrances independently of the municipality.

Public pools are not yet open due to the contracted chlorine provider not being able to render services. This is being fought in court.

Another matter being fought in court is Plastic City. An eviction order has been applied for but has not been finalised.

Town committee to be dissolved

Douglas revealed to the Brakpan Herald that there are plans to dissolve the committee and start a new organisation.

A new committee was supposed to be elected at the end of the gathering but attendees left.

“Some of the people got tired of the mudslinging, which was expressly asked not to be the feature of the meeting,” said Douglas.

“Others left because the meeting dragged on for three hours because of mudslinging and infighting, and some saw that they were not going to get unity and answers when people turn to insults and mudslinging.

“Some just lost interest and went back to apathy and some found that their hurt feelings meant more than the future of the town or country. Venting does not bring solutions, it aggravates issues.”

With no new committee elected, Douglas stated there are plans to start a new organisation, Concerned Brakpan Residents, which will focus on getting action groups going to improve Brakpan and hold the City of Ekurhuleni accountable.

“Citizens can demand their monthly ward meetings and attend their own ward meetings to raise issues with regards to their own wards. Councillors are duty bound to have these ward meetings each month,” he said.

It appears many residents were unsure of the committee’s role in the community. Douglas explained it was a group attempting to place pressure on councillors and the municipality, to grow mass support for such, and to find ways and solutions to improve service delivery and the image of the town.

“We also wanted the different groups and organisations in Brakpan to come together as a collective, but the committee was mostly seemingly scorned by other groups, as none of their leaders were prepared to attend out of their own and some seemingly felt like VIPs and needed personal invitations,” he said.

“Unfortunately for 10 months of its existence, only five to 10 people attended the monthly meetings. The last two were attended by about 150 and 200 people respectively. But unfortunately people brought their personal issues to the meetings and feelings, instead of focusing on finding out how the council processes work, what the issues are facing the councillors and coalition council, investigating main problematic issues and finding solutions together, to place pressure on council departments and council to further service delivery and assisting where possible.

“We are only strong as a collective, not as individuals or splintered groups.”

The purpose of the committee’s meetings also seemed unclear to many residents, with many using it as a platform to air grievances about service delivery issues, which Douglas confirmed was not the point of the gatherings.

“The purpose is not for residents just to, or mostly, air their grievances. Their grievances were already placed on the agenda as a collective. All the main service delivery issues plaguing citizens are placed on the agenda from grievances received already on social media and self-observation,” he said.

“The purpose was to place it before councillors and receive detailed feedback, but most of the attendees decided to raise their personal, already collective, issues in an angry fashion, not suited for reasonable debating, and thus the agenda could not be discussed and debated in detail.

“It would serve its purpose if people are willing to first listen as to what the obstacles are facing service delivery by the council, how the council works and why we need an outright majority coalition or other feasible party governing, other than the previous one that has failed for 20 years.

“You cannot solve a problem if you do not know what the problems are facing you.

“There were some insulting remarks made that the people need to be able to vent their feelings.

“This is disrespectful to voluntary and committee members who offer their time and own expenses up to assist the community, find solutions for the community and help out with community projects.

“It is also disrespectful to the citizens who took the time to attend the meeting to find out what the issues are the council face and what they are doing to resolve it, as well as wanted to have a reasonable and respectful debate themselves without egos getting in the way.”

When asked if he believes Brakpan residents can work together to find solution to the town’s problems, Douglas replied no.

“Not in the near future. We have many groups and organisations in Brakpan, and the country, who work in silos instead of as a collective towards a common goal,” he said.

“This is the same as our current political landscape. People are interested in their own interests, not the collective.

“People cannot realise that they need to stand together as one, in unity, if they want councils and government to listen to them and to place pressure on the elected to make changes for the better and govern in the interest of their citizens.

“People also need to realise that everyone is in the same boat and no one has a special issue none other also have.

“When asked if anyone was willing to stand for the new town committee, no one volunteered. There were only suggestions that a person from each ward committee must stand for and attend the town committee, thereby already opting out of collective pressure through mass participation, and out of personally getting involved.

“The ward committees have not met once with any of their wards the past 18 months anyway, so how will they achieve these nominations?”