The multi-billion rand infrastructure backlog affecting services in the greater part of the City of Johannesburg has had a huge impact in many wards, including that of councillor Amelia Bester, of Ward 89.
This proactive public servant embarked on a service delivery assessment with the Northsider in a bid to update residents about the shortfalls and progresses of the service issues.
We dived deep into some of the burning service issues plaguing the ward …
The underground water and burst pipe crisis:
Parts of Amelia’s ward have had a long-standing problem of underground water and constantly bursting pipes which has affected numerous residents and caused defects in road surfaces, especially on Constantia Drive.
Amelia updated on the latest developments on these issues. “Through the Integrated Development Planning Process (IDP) we were given money in the previous cycle for Environmental Affairs and the Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) to do a proper environmental study to determine the origin of the underground water which causes seepage and flooding in the Oribi Street area. Residents have complained that the underground water is pushing up into their living rooms and also causing the soil to be completely drenched,” she explained.
She said that subsoil drains were installed by JRA to collect the water, to reduce damage to the roads during the study.
Public open spaces are occupied by vagrants:
Ward 89 has quite a number of vacant spaces, such as parks, the koppies and private property. Many of these spots have been plagued with illegal dumping and housing erected by displaced people, some of whom are illegal immigrants.
“We have many public spaces in the ward which are necessary for the natural flow of water when it rains, to reduce flooding. These spaces are not suitable for development,” Amelia said.
Due to the lack of security in some of the public spaces, several displaced people have taken up residence in these areas, which is a major concern, because residents do not understand the complexity of the issue. “All spheres of government should be involved in the multi-departmental efforts to remove illegal immigrants back to their home countries and to place citizens in shelters,” she said, after revealing that about 3 000 migrants move into the City on a monthly basis.
“As Council, we continue to appeal for a greater budgetary allocation toward the establishment of more shelters across the City. We also encourage residents and businesses to partner with government to adopt public open spaces in an effort to secure our parks through fencing (for example) at their expense,” she explained.
Panorama PikitUp Garden Site drama:
Residential complexes surrounding the garden site were up in arms last year, and disgruntled by the poor management and health risks at the site. They demanded that it be relocated during its current revamp and temporary shutdown, which will see the facility being transformed into a recycling hub.
Amelia spoke about the budget that went into this unfinished project.
“A great disappointment is the delay in opening up the Panorama Garden Site to the public after the planned upgrade in 2018. Just short of R3 million was allocated to upgrading this site to a recycling hub. The project was not completed in time or within budget, with the rising underground water table not having been taken into consideration prior to commencing with works. During my oversight visit, I found illegal dumping on the premises. The matter has been raised with all stakeholders but no new information has been supplied,” she explained.
She further explained, “It costs the City millions per month to manage and remove illegal dumping which has reached an all-time high. While illegal dumping cannot be condoned, we must acknowledge that dumping sites are close to full capacity and in many instances, they are inaccessible. I encourage the residents to report illegal dumping along municipal roadsides to Pikitup; on provincial roads to SANRAL, and in parks to Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo”.
Hendrik Potgieter Road and 14th Avenue hot spots:
According to Amelia not a week goes that she does not receive an alert on the community groups she’s part of about criminal problems on either Hendrik Potgieter Road or 14th Avenue. In a bid to curb these incidents, Amelia said she has put up a petition which can be signed by residents to get provincial government to erect hijacking hot spots signs for motorists, keep the grass short to remove hiding places, increase lighting and keep storm water drains clean, “because the perpetrators use the storm water drains to escape through to the Constantia Kloof side,” Amelia said.
Importance of public participation:
Amelia said a lot can be achieved in the ward through public participation. She encouraged residents to participate in the IDP processes.
“My efforts toward getting accurate reporting on the state of service delivery in the City are starting to bear fruit. Residents association chairpersons and ward committees assist me in my oversight function by assessing the services report. Noting the information on hot spots has informed our inputs into the IDP process. We also encourage residents to submit requests for capital spending in our ward,” she urged.
As a result of the participation, she said the following successes had been achieved: the installation of traffic lights at the intersection of Constantia Drive/ Wilhelmina Avenue and Jim Fouché Road, and the multi-million rand upgrades of the Roosevelt Park- and Kloofendal substations, which both feed into her ward.
Amelia concluded by encouraging more residents to report service problems. “Please report service breakdowns using the directory on www.lookandlog.co.za and copy me in for tracking purposes at cllr.a.bester@gmail.com,” she said.
The Northsider will also be enquiring further with the relevant entities in an effort to speed up the services process.
Do you perhaps have more information pertaining to this story? Email us at northsider@caxton.co.za (remember to include your contact details) or phone us on 011 955 1130.
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