MANDLA Radebe from Norkem Park writes:
It was an eyebrow-raising moment hearing from the DA MP, Honourable Michael Waters, “DA starts petition for increased visible policing”, on May 12. This is an issue very close to many people’s hearts because today a break-in has become a minor offence for courts and a huge security problem for residents.
It is close to my heart too because I have lost assets and have had my property damaged. Unarguably a good call. I am writing this assuming that Hon Waters wrote in his capacity both as MP and a DA leader.
Last year the DA through Kempton Express called a meeting in Birch Acres to report to the community the facts that Hon Waters wrote about in his article. Big names with influential positions were present, including Hon Barnard. Of particular importance to me, was the fact that there was a petition to be signed by residents for this very issue of visible policing. I signed the petition and left. I have never heard anything about it since that day.
Four years prior to that day, I lined up to certify documents at Norkem Park Police station. Other people were there for different reasons. The police station is open plan. A woman was reporting a case of domestic violence, in full view of the 14 other people. Imagine that with no privacy, baring your soul in humiliation in front of strangers and answering questions about uncomfortable events that took place. Soon after that the DA again, through Kempton Express, invited the community to sign a petition for the improvement of the police station facility in Norkem Park. With this event fresh in my mind, I signed the petition. I have no idea what happened to it.
Early this year Ekurhuleni had two community events, the Mayoral Imbizo followed later by the Gauteng Premier’s Ntirisano community engagement. In the Mayoral Imbizo, I noticed that there were only two DA councillors present. In the Ntirisano gathering, I noticed no one from the DA.
Both meetings were not the ANC’s, but community gatherings; otherwise I would not have attended. As a community member I expected these issues to be raised at that platform by the DA, carrying the community with them, but to no avail. Excuse me for high expectations, but if you are going to raise issues as big as the one being raised now, you have to take the community with you. The DA has elected officials in our area, and I think they have a duty to account to the community for the time they spend in the assembly.
To ask us today to sign a petition while we have not heard what happened to the two petitions prior to this one is devoid of accountability. It comes to the community as unbelievable that both the mayor and the premier would ignore you because you are DA, but you don’t show up at the mayor’s and the premier’s meeting. And even if you do, you also don’t raise these issues to the powers that be in front of the community you represent. As a community member I felt like I had to fend for myself when I have elected officials.
So Hon Waters, you may need to instruct your councillors to engage us, not me, on the issues they are raising with the metro and the province, account for the community mandate handed over to them for the last five years, instead of sending us to the websites for petitions. We don’t want to attend a DA meeting but we need to be addressed by them as our councillors. They are community elected officials and their responsibility is to the community.
