ANC councillor Willie van der Schyf retaliated with a lengthy response defending decisions made in the City of Johannesburg’s (CoJ’s) recent Princess Plots Housing Project (PPHP) launch that local councillors did not attend.
The Record on 8 July reported DA ward councillors Carl Mann and Gert Niemand did not attend the launch in their respective wards as they were not given sufficient notice of the event and it fell within councillors’ recess. Both were out of town at the time, Mann said. He accused CoJ member of mayoral committee (MMC) for Economic Development Roslyn Greeff and Van der Schyf of holding meetings at Plot 22, where the first phase of the development is taking place, “without the knowledge of the standing councillor for that area [Niemand].”
He also described the launch held in their absence as “a total disregard of and disrespect towards our involvement in those communities”.
“The statement must be rejected as utter nonsence,” Van der Schyf in a recent media statement said.
“Both Greeff and I have been involved with various initiatives to assist the provincial government, departments of council and various business and community initiatives in the upgrading of the bigger Princess precinct over very many years,” he said.
“As political office bearers of the ANC who are also deployed in the Roodepoort area, we of necessity meet with members of our organisation on a regular basis to consult and update them on issues they’re affected by.
“I would like to challenge Mann to provide the Record and ourselves with clear evidence regarding the so-called meetings at Plot 22 and to motivate why they should be invited when we meet with ANC constituents. One meeting that we are aware of was arranged by CoJ officials to update the community on the Princess Urban Development Framework (PUDF) which both DA councillors failed to attend and failed to submit an apology for.”
With regards to PPHP, Van der Schyf said, “we as councillors were, like others, invited by the provincial department responsible to attend, which we did, despite council being in recess, thereby putting the interest of all our people first.”
“This again demonstrates the typical attitude of the majority of DA councillors in Johannesburg, continuously adopting a ‘shot gun’-approach and trying to harvest where they have not planted anything, thereby confusing communities in order to cover up for their lack of performance.”
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Also read: Princess: R1 billion to be spend on housing
Princess Plots Housing Project officially launched
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