Councillors and city administrators drawing swords as electoral duel approaches

With service delivery floundering across the City of Joburg, two councillors have taken aim at city administrators as pre-election tensions rise.

Ward 88 councillor Nicolene Jonker says service delivery is not where it should be. “I share residents’ frustrations but want to assure them we are standing up for them in council.”

“I don’t have any good news to share at the moment. Hardworking teams at various departments are struggling with resources and equipment to fix faults with residents regularly needing to lend them equipment to attend to problems. It is a sad state of affairs I am afraid.”

She says one of the biggest hurdles she and other DA councillors face, is a council that does not want them to succeed.

“The mayor recently said that privileged wards will be put on the backburner for service delivery which is sad because it is these wards which are keeping the city going.”

“In council, fellow councillor Tyrell Meyers said that the current administration is not supporting anything in blue (DA) wards. It is election madness now which we can feel strongly, and residents are bearing the brunt of this.”

Ward 89 Councillor Leah Knott wrote to City Manager Floyd Brink and the Mayor, Kabelo Gwamanda where she pulls no punches in condemning ‘the rapid decline in service delivery’.

“Residents are basically told they are the cause of the breakdowns and should basically just ‘pay up and shut up’.”

“This is not a political issue; it is one that affects every person living in the city. Joburg has sufficient funds to truly run an efficient city and yet this is not happening.”

“My ward contributes substantially to the city’s budget and the situation has reached a point where communities are discussing rates boycotts.”

In Ward 88 frustrated residents have been busy mobilising, holding several peaceful protests lamenting city officials for poor or non-existent service delivery. One of their leaders, Michael O’Donovan says they have now started collecting signatures for a petition to demand the ear of the mayor. “Failing which we will seriously consider withholding our rates and taxes.”

Gwamanda responded in writing to various letters and communications from DA councillors saying the opposition party wants to mobilise right-wing elements against the city administration.

“More concerning is several letters received from DA councillors which seek to divide the city and its services in line with the contribution to revenue by various wards. The city has an adopted integrated development plan which identifies our priorities and programmes.”

“The privilege the DA seeks to smuggle into the discourse through mobilising the privileged against the disadvantaged is a desperate right-wing tendency and must be frowned upon. We cannot seek to undermine historical injustice against the poor on the basis that those who can afford must be serviced first and with preference. The city will not be drawn into backward tendencies that seek to return it to a painful past whose effects and consequences live with us to this day.”

Knott ends by saying, “I cannot in good conscience allow the current state of affairs to continue unabated nor can I fail the residents who elected me to represent them by keeping quiet about the state we find ourselves in.”

Jonker echoed her sentiment, “We, as councillors, want to assure residents that we are standing up for them and with them. All of this is why we want to dissolve the council. But this can only happen if residents make sure they are registered to vote and turn out to vote. It is in their hands to decide who is going to run the city.”

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