Make a poll about service delivery

Service delivery are hopefully the two words voters will think long and hard about before voting on 29 May.

For far too long, there has been little or no service delivery at local, provincial and national level – regardless of where in South Africa you live. And the public has had enough.

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Whether being gatvol with this translates into people changing the political parties they have backed in previous elections, only time will tell.

But service delivery should be front and centre when deciding on who you will vote for. With that in mind, it’s refreshing to hear someone is out to improve service delivery, even though so much is crashing around him.

Tshwane mayor Cilliers Brink said all the right things at his state of the capital address this week, promising he is working hard to regain the trust of the residents, despite financial pressures and political instability, while struggling to provide consistent access to water and electricity.

Yes, politicians love to make promises – especially in an election year – but Brink is certainly talking the talk, so why can’t he walk the walk?

He said: “I am more optimistic than I have been before about the future of the capital city and the country.”

He promised to restore 90% of power interruptions within 7.5 hours and 90% of water leaks within 48 hours in the next financial year.

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He also dismissed claims that residents who don’t pay municipal bills are largely poor people.

“Having seen the geographical spread of our debtor’s book, I can confirm this is not the case. “There are folks who are relatively well off, who can afford to pay, who have no dispute with the municipality but prefer to pay other bills.

This is going to end. If you can pay DStv, or instalments on a luxury vehicle, you can also pay for the water and electricity you use.”

Well said, Mr Mayor. Now if your city – and others – could just deliver services.