Kocksoord residents were locked in a room on Tuesday 17 March, with the Public Liaison Officer, Billy Tsotetsi, in a meeting that was haphazardly arranged, after their meeting with the Executive Mayor, Mzi Khumalo was cancelled.
In a sitting with Totseti, the disappointed and disgruntled residents, who wanted their issues about service delivery to be resolved, said that among their issues are the unkempt state of the environment, lack of road maintenance, and inconsistent and high municipal rates.
Residents said enough is enough and said the municipality should be held accountable.
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During the meeting, the residents demanded answers about the irregular billing system, which has been the biggest problem for years.
They said they are also unhappy because the Executive Mayor, Mzi Khumalo, did not come to the long-awaited meeting with them, without sending an apology. Residents said they felt as though their complaints were not taken seriously by the municipality.
Tsotetsi said two petitions were submitted to the Rand West City Municipality by the community of Kocksoord about their issues.
He also said many of the queries from the community were answered by the municipality, but the community was not happy with the responses and therefore escalated the matter to the Gauteng Provincial Government.
“Now, due to the fact that we Public Liaison Officers (PLOs) have been placed in different stations around the country, the Provincial Government sent the matter to me to attend to. That is how came into the picture – as the PLO.
“My job first of all, was to research and get to the crux of the matter. The main cry of the community was the high billing of water and lights which was burning a hole in their pockets.
In the investigation, we learned that the whole of Ward 2 is affected by the high bills due to faulty meters.”
Totseti said there are people who have been billed R19 000 or more. The community will receive the Executive Mayor’s response about the issues in the community on Thursday, 19 March.
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