Sir. I am a widowed pensioner, but still have to pay taxes every year, including my monthly rates and taxes to the Randfontein Municipality.
Furthermore, I vote when required and I vote for the DA, but the municipality gives me nothing for the monthly payment made meticulously every month, and they do nothing to deserve my vote.
I have tried to report the very bad state of the road in front of my property (my only route to the outside world) to a councillor, but he/ she never answers the phone and there is no response to voice messages. I have reported the road to another councillor a few times, and I have reported it to the DA offices in Greenhills.
All this to no avail – according to the DA, they can do nothing, because they do not hold the majority in Randfontein, and they get very upset because I do not attend the public meetings held to air our grievances.
I did attend the only one I knew about, actually learning about it ten minutes before it started. Besides the DA, I have relentlessly tried to contact the municipality, whose phone hasn’t been working for months, and the man responsible for the maintenance of the roads. I have two cellphone numbers for him, as he is probably never in his office, or has no office in the municipal building.
I want to know if I should carry on paying my rates and taxes account as I have paid, since January 2018, nearly R10 000 to repair damage to my vehicle’s rims and tyres, and surely withholding money for which I get no services will help me tremendously.
It is not as if I can miss the potholes, the road barely exists, and if a car is coming from the front, you are in trouble.
I can supply the telephone numbers of the person in charge of the roads to any interested person, but I think we should rather have the names published of all the non-existent municipal managers receiving payment without evidence of any work done, so that the new government, so adamant about routing, can replace them with efficient people.
