Community forum calls for the councillor’s head

The Orange Grove Community Forum has expressed its loss of confidence in Ward 73 Councillor Marcelle Ravid and called for her to step down.

The Forum vowed that they will make the ward ungovernable if the councillor did not heed their call. Forum spokesperson Stanley Letsoalo stated that the councillor had failed the poor community of Orange Grove, as she had directed all her energy towards wealthy communities like Houghton.

Letsolao said, “If she wants to be a leader of the upper-class only she must go and work as a street committee member in Houghton but not as our councillor.”

Ravid, however, stated that she won’t step down. “I was elected as a councillor for Ward 73 by over 70 percent of the votes for a five-year term. I will continue to serve all residents of this ward to the best of my ability, for the full term. Any attempt to subvert the democratic process will be treated with the contempt that it deserves,” she said.

Letsoalo insisted they would not rest until Ravid and her committee step down. “We are utterly dismayed and annoyed by the fact that she was representing this ward as a councillor as she has isolated the poor communities in many social and development programmes, such as the upcoming BRT (Rea Vaya Bus Rapid Transit system) project in Louis Botha Avenue. She was supposed to allow everyone to be part of the project,” he added.

“If she wants to be a leader of the upper-class only she must go and work as a street committee member in Houghton but not as our councillor.”

In response to the allegation that she failed to address unemployment, Ravid said she was the first councillor to introduce the Community Workers’ Programme, a work programme run by national government, outside of Alexandra. Ravid said, “The BRT is still in the planning stage and all tenders are handled by the appropriate departments of the city. There are no ‘projects’ at this early stage, although it was mentioned at a presentation by the Transport Department that they will use local labour as much as possible. This will be organised through the departments of council and province.”

Letsoalo added that further proof that Ravid was not committed to her job was that she failed to attend the Johannesburg Ward Committee Summit which was addressed by the Mayor. “The summit discussed programmes that are in place for the city but she was not there. We expected her to provide sound leadership in platforms of that magnitude but she was nowhere to be found. If you are given a responsibility to lead a ward, you are supposed to advocate on behalf of the community. Once you fail to do that, that on its own says something to us: this woman is not fit for this position.”

Ravid responded that she did not attend the Ward Committee Summit as she had a previous commitment. “Often council-related meetings are announced last minute or moved last minute, as was the case here, and it becomes impossible to always accommodate these changes. The submission of the Ward 73 Integrated Development Plan, which is drawn up every year after consultation with all residents’ associations in the ward, as well as the ward committee, is far more instructive than attending a meeting where all 130 wards are present,” she said.