It has been six months since the municipal elections took place, resulting in a new ward councillor being elected for Ward 71.
René Benjamin was elected as the councillor for this ward, which includes Princess AH, Lindhaven, Reefhaven, Witpoortjie, Grobler Park Ext, Davidsonville and Wilfordon. This is her first venture into politics, and the Record asked her about her experience so far.
“It’s been a very busy few months, but I took on this challenge, because, as a resident and parent, I wanted to make a difference rather than being a couch participant. I had no delusions of what I was getting into, in fact, I chose to serve in this ward, rather than any other,” René said.
She said that the biggest challenges she faced in the ward were definitely the vast amount of vacant land being abandoned or not maintained by owners; crime; illegal dumping; municipal account queries and other issues; promised title deeds not delivered; illegal connections; vehicle accidents; drugs; infrastructure problems, and the lack of movement at the Princess housing project.
“The illegal connections have had a ripple effect on the ward as a whole, resulting in power outages, no street lights for residents, and damage to roads. In addition, they led to the death of a seven-year-old girl. The ward has also experienced a lot of severe water pipe bursts because of ageing and poorly maintained infrastructure,” she said.
In the midst of all these challenges, René said, there have been quite a few successes as well. Street humps were successfully completed in McGrath and Dirkie Uys Streets to ensure the safety of the learners at Princess Primary School. “This was also done to reduce the number of accidents happening on that stretch of road due to speeding. The same measures were undertaken at the Witpoortjie Senior Park to ensure the safety of our senior citizens,” she said.
The Princess Clinic was revamped and upgraded to prepare for the mayor’s launch of its extended hours, which was done successfully in November last year. Davidsonville Clinic was also part of a successful health open day, and Social Development assisted with re-establishing the vegetable garden in Princess to help curb the illegal dumping.
With the help of the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department’s K9 Narcotics Unit, and the police, a number of successful raids and arrests were made, taking a positive step in the fight against this huge problem.
“We also hosted the third annual high tea event at Witpoortjie Senior Park, honoured the scholar patrol at Princess Primary with medals and certificates, and did skills development training in Princess,” René said.
Her action plan for the ward is a long list of issues that need attention, but she highlighted some of them, for example, skills development for job creation, getting primary schools into the library special events, substance abuse/ HIV awareness programmes, wellness campaigns and craft activities for senior citizens, sport development, and the electrification of Princess informal settlement.
Residents are urged to visit the ward’s Facebook page (Ward71.joburg) to stay up to date with what’s happening in the ward.
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