Ward 88 councillor Pat Richards is a champion for many residents who live in her ward. Richards, who is a registered nurse, has been a councillor since 2000 and said that she became a councillor because she saw that there was a lack of service delivery.
“I was nominated during the time I was a PR councillor for the DA and it’s a difficult job at times,” she said. The eldest of nine children, Richards grew up in a busy household in Pretoria and came to Joburg in 1971 to work as an intensive care nurse for heart surgeries.
But the state of service delivery became too much for her to ignore. She became a Ward councillor to address this. Richards said that she found her job very rewarding as she was able to help people with the problems that they encountered on a daily basis. “One must have empathy for others as a councillor because sometimes residents call me just to talk,” she added.
She helps residents deal with problems they have with the City’s service delivery whether it’s rubbish collection, power outages or bylaws that have been broken. She is the residents’ go-to person. “My phone is constantly ringing with residents calling me everyday to help them fix a problem which I gladly do,” Richards said.
Richards admits that her job kept her so busy that she had no time for leisure activities and is on call 24/7 every day. Richards said that usually councillors dealt with resident’s problems after they have been reported to the relevant parties. However, her constituents relied on her to log the problems and follow it up. “What will help residents with their different problems is for them to start petitions and take them to the relevant stakeholder,” she said.
Richards is serving her last term as a councillor as she recently announced her retirement due to health problems. She is currently serving on the electoral committee that is electing members to nominate to stand as councillors from next year onwards.
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