Councillors browbeaten and call for more active citizenry
From attending council meetings to joining local resident's associations, more can be done by communities to demand the City of Johannesburg does better.
Nicole van Dyk, Ward 99, and Nicolene Jonker, Ward 88, councillors share their frustrations at the lack of service delivery in the city.
Van Dyk said, “I feel so deeply for residents during these difficult times. One of the dentists in my ward lost R60 000 worth of equipment because of erratic electricity supply, something a small business can ill afford to lose.”
She wishes residents would use the power they have to bring about change and to hold officials accountable outside of casting a vote at election times. “Individuals have power that is not being used, and we must advocate to change that and get people into council and other spaces to demand accountability from the city and its executive body.”
One way she says this can be done is ‘by attending Section 79 sittings in council where it is possible to monitor the oversight functions of councillors and officials of the meetings’. It is here that the work of the municipal council is discussed and monitored.
“Residents should demand that these meetings be streamed online like general council sittings are to make their work more transparent and accountable.”
She also implores communities and individuals to submit their comments on things like city budgets via municipal Integrated Development Plans (IDP), which can have an ‘impact if high numbers of people submit responses’.
“I also always advocate for residents to join their residents’ associations who often work closely with their councillor. In my ward, for example, I cannot do this alone, and neither can they. We must work together at a community level, with civil society to be more effective.”
Jonker said, “This is such a tough time for the city and things are not working as they should. I can see city entities are generally trying. For example, Johannesburg Water has now awarded contracts to reinstatement teams to close large holes in the road dug up to fix or instal water pipes for example. The problem lies if rumours are true that they are charging so much for doing the work they will never get through all of them.”
She says the same is true too for City Power, following complaints about the work carried out by contractors. These contracts ended at the end of May but the process of appointing new contractors with better skills and so on has begun.
“At a recent meeting with City Power, they are trying to put a system in place for lengthy outages. They will relay thousands of metres of cable paid for by capital expenditure projects. The same too for water pipes.”
She says she feels like a firefighter a lot of the time pivoting from one crisis to another now. “After the State of the City address by the mayor, I was very disheartened as he did not mention water or electricity, so am not feeling positive at the moment, unfortunately.”
Northcliff resident Constant van Deventer, a former town planner shares her sentiment. “I was really hoping the coalition would work and we could get someone competent in place but that has not happened with new Mayor Kabelo Gwamanda. Unfortunately, many people don’t know how serious this situation is. I feel like providing service delivery is an inconvenient sideshow to whatever is going on at council, no wonder our city is in a mess, and it is residents who are the ones who suffer endlessly.”
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