Ward 94 councillor, John Mendelsohn recently reflected on the 15 years he has served the community as he gives way to a new candidate for the ward, David Foley, after the municipal elections on 3 August.
“The journey as ward councillor has been quite demanding due to the number of billing complaints I would receive, but I tried my level best to respond to all the community’s complaints,” Mendelsohn said.
He added that it had been very rewarding being the Ward 94 councillor as, being a people’s person, he had enjoyed working with many people in the community to solve their problems.
“I find myself giving tons of advice which keeps me updated on what is happening in the neighbourhood or the ward,” he said. The hardest part of the job was dealing with frustrated community members who felt that the system had let them down.
He was pleased to have the opportunity to launch ward improvement campaigns which included anti-crime, bad driving and illegal advertising.
The councillor also found it very rewarding to be able to represent three informal settlements in the Kya Sands area from 2006 to 2011. He said he was able to demonstrate what effective commitment could achieve in these settlements by providing these communities with water and proper sanitation. Mendelsohn believes everyone has the right to health, no matter their living conditions.
He disclosed that he is a prolific reader of history books and novels, enjoys taking his dogs for walks and attends dog training events every Sunday. He was once a good horse rider and is also a good speech writer, good at drafting motions and writing questions in councillor-related issues.
Mendelsohn said it has been pleasant serving a community which has been well organised and vigilant as it made his job as councillor easier.
He serves on three councillor committees, which are the finance committee, the municipal public accounts committee and the Democratic Alliance committee. Mendelsohn’s future plans are to be one of the councillors elected on the board of proportional representation – an electoral system in which the number of seats held by a particular political party in a legislature is directly determined by the number of votes the political party’s candidates receive in a given election. The purpose of proportional representation is to fairly represent various political parties in a legislature proportionally to the number of votes it gathers in an election.
Details: 011 803 3673.
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