Amendment and demarcation of wards will only come into effect after the local government elections on 3 August.
The outgoing Ward 89 Councillor Ingrid Reinten advised residents in her ward to cast their vote where they are registered. She said the demarcation will only change the day after elections.
Councillor Reinten will not contest this year’s local government elections as the newly elected candidate councillor for the ward is Advocate Amelia Bester.
Some of the ongoing challenges in the ward throughout her five-year tenure were the maintenance of roads, water infrastructure, non-operational street lights and public open spaces.
Reinten further explained that local government is about access to basic service and the City’s Council hasn’t done enough to ensure that basic service is delivered appropriately.
“I think the biggest challenge in the council is the monitoring and evaluation of service delivery. We haven’t started that in the City. There is a small system in the City to deal with communities and provide feedback to residents,” she said.
The new DA candidate councillor for this year’s elections Bester said that she has already started to engage with resident’s associations and residents in the ward.
She is adamant that the party will return the ward and promised to start working as soon as the elections are over. “I am ready and looking forward to serve the community. I am already establishing a relationship with residents,” she said.
She further explained that open public spaces attract vagrants and an element of crime in the suburbs and that would be her priority when she took over.
According to Bester, 70 per cent of the new registered voters in the ward were young people. “I will be visiting street committees and residents. I encourage the youth to call me and get more involved in the issues of service delivery,” she said.
She advised that the easiest way to report to municipal entities was to use the look and log guide. “It becomes easier for us [councillors] to follow up with the City’s entities if reported problems are not solved,” she said.
Details: Ward 89 Councillor Ingrid Reinten, 083 440 8343.
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