The DA’s PR councillor for ward 124, Clr Tyrell Meyers, accompanied the Housing Chairperson in the City of Johannesburg, Clr Suzanne Clarke, on an unannounced site visit to the Reuven and Glenesk retirement villages on Tuesday, January 17.
“The visit comes after numerous complaints about how the previous administration failed the senior citizens of these villages, infringing on their basic human rights. The villages don’t even have their own budgets. They are included into the city’s housing stock, said Clr Meyers.
Meyers said security access into the village is somewhat easy to bypass; there’s long grass everywhere; trees that have fallen onto the buildings; geysers aren’t working; frail care people struggling to walk on the paved walk ways which have been damaged; foundation cracks in the main Hall; fire extinguishers haven’t been serviced in years and the office of the caretaker, is also unusable.
A housing official was on site to note some of the complaints alongside Clr Clarke, who has made retirement villages her focus and will fight for them to have their own budgets.
The DA plans to activate general maintenance and believes similar problems were experienced at Glenesk homes, where sewerage was also raised as a concern.
“I accompanied MMC for Housing Clr Ntuli late last year, due to the burst pipes that resulted in massive water loss. They’ve since been repaired. I’m glad the City is listening to me. Our seniors can’t live like this,” said Meyers.
Clr Clarke will complete her site visits of retirement villages soon and her team will put forward a plan to address the backlogs, as well as a way forward at the end of March, leading up to the budget to be approved by council.
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