City meeting ends in a ruckus

What started off as a smooth, civilised public meeting to address the services issues of Ward 97 ended up in a heated argument when some residents felt their needs were being ignored by the City.

The controversial meeting, which left residents annoyed and feeling helpless, was hosted by Ward 97 councillor Leah Knott on 31 January at Ruimsig Athletics Stadium, to publicly address complaints which had been brought to her attention.

The engagement involved delegates from the City of Johannesburg, such as the Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) of Finance, Dr Rabelani Dagada; the MMC for Environment and Infrastructure Services, councillor Anthony Still, and other experts in their respective portfolios.

The meeting was held to discuss issues surrounding billing and persistent power outages, according to Knott.

The meeting took an ugly turn when the floor accused Knott and officials from the City of misleading the public. Residents from the Ruimsig informal settlement complained that the City was prioritising some issues and ignoring others.

Gcobani Mashiyi, a community leader, was the first to interrupt the meeting’s initial agenda. He lambasted Knott for allegedly failing to keep her promise of addressing concerns that were raised in the previous meeting. “What is the plan for enterprise development for people of Ward 97?” he asked.

“People living at plot 77 [informal settlement] do not have access to water and electricity. I thought we came here to discuss issues from the previous meeting. What is the City’s plan in addressing this crisis?”

Mashiyi was supported by another community activist, Ashely Mama, who criticised the City for only addressing issues of the minority.

“Before the end of January, they promised to come and address the issues of housing, water and electrification of Ruimsig and the plots. We were surprised [today] when they did what they usually do when we have these meetings – address issues of the minority. [As you can see] the issues of the majority were not answered,” he said.

Still reacted to the complaints by directing the aggrieved residents to the provincial administration. “If you are going to moan about houses, you must go to province. We are only an agent for [the] government,” he said.

Knott, in an interview with Roodepoort Northsider after the meeting, said that a meeting was held in November to address the issue of illegal plots, housing and informal settlements. “At the end of November last year, we held a meeting with the MMC of Development, Planning and Infrastructure and the head of housing in Region C to address the problem of informal plots and settlers in Ruimsig, along Beyers Naudé and Magnum Street. We agreed to have a round table discussion after that with solutions to the issues,” she said, adding that majority of issues were included in the housing project in Ruimsig.

She also mentioned that the identification of beneficiaries has been slow and she has requested clairy from the Johannesburg Property Company.