Ivory Park‘s Ward 133 Councillor, Julia Gololo has expressed her anger at some of the challenges she is facing in the community.
Gololo said among many other issues, the latest has become the housing allocations which were supposed to take place on 9 March but are now facing delays.
“Only eight families were supposed to relocate to the new low-cost housing which has been completed but the whole process is dragging on longer than it should for reasons which are unknown,” said Gololo.
“The community of Ivory Park is forced to accept living conditions which are not healthy or clean because of constant sewer blockages and bursts which result in sewage water running down the streets, in front of people’s houses.”
The councillor said she has reported the sewer problems numerous times but no interventions have been made and as a result, the community tends to blame her as their councillor for things that are out of her hands.
Gololo went on to highlight that certain members of the community tend to dump their waste anywhere regardless of the fact that there are Pikitup rubbish bins available to them, this then causes piles of rubbish near residential areas or near the road.
“Informal settlements’ housing alignment was not done according to the agreed-upon schedule. Currently, Khutsong informal settlement’s alignment was not done because certain groups prevented it from happening and we are in discussion as to why the project was blocked.”
A housing alignment is a process whereby some families are moved to a different stand within the same area to create a road space where ambulances and police vehicles are able to assess the area. This usually takes place in informal settlements.
“Electrification of informal settlements is an ongoing challenge throughout the community as well as the proper provision of toilets.”
Gololo concluded that a councillor can only do so much and is faced with problems when trying to resolve community issues because of processes and just poor management at times.
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