The ups and downs of Ward 99

While there have been recent successes in Ward 99, councillor Nicole van Dyk feels she has to escalate 90 per cent of issues before the City of Johannesburg responds to them.

The ward councillor for Linden, Darrenwood, Robindale, Robin Hills, Robin Acres Jacanlee, Ferndale, and much of Cresta and Blairgowrie has seen a decline in the work rate of service delivery utilities since the lockdown began.

“Even now, we are in lockdown Level 1 but only about 40 per cent of City employees are at work,” she complained.

“The turnaround times for issues are up and it seems like the City is not responding to any new reinstatements.”

In the past few months, the ward has celebrated the upgrade of Roosevelt Park Substation, the installation of new smaller substations, the cutting of grass and the resurfacing of well-travelled roads.

But this came after weeks, if not months of hard work for Van Dyk and her ward committee, she said.

“I still need the roads resurfaced after there were burst pipes on Morrell Road and the corner of Barkston Drive and McKay Avenue. I have also been waiting weeks for street lights on Republic Road to be fixed. But our biggest problem lately has been homelessness.”

According to the councillor, during lockdown many organisations and churches provided food and essentials for displaced people, and this had attracted more to certain areas.

“At the start of lockdown we maybe had 10 homeless people in Blairgowrie. Now we have about 50.”

Van Dyk said most of these people were reclaimers and some have been sorting their recyclable material in public places, as opposed to at the collection sites.

There are homeless shelters in Rosebank and Windsor but Van Dyk said most homeless people used their right to not go to them, as they are also hotspots for crime.

Power outages have decreased in the area but whenever there is load-shedding there are often more trips and outages.

Details: Ward 99 councillor, Nicole van Dyk Ward99jozi@gmail.com; WhatsApp 071 382 1992.