Councillor Martin Williams assured his constituency recently that he was aware of shortcomings in Ward 90, particularly the problem of displaced people moving around the area.
“As a councillor who likes to get things done, I’m not sitting back and accepting the status quo,” he said.
“Those who are understandably impatient, please consider the project we have embarked upon, and where we have come from.”
The reversal of service delivery backlogs at local level, notably road repairs and unkempt parks and verges, depended on change at national level, and Joburg, due to its size, had the potential to change the course of the country’s history, he said. “As Mayor Herman Mashaba rightly says, when Joburg works, South Africa works. [But] Joburg is a big ship to turn around.”
The DA, sworn in after the 3 August election, inherited a budget and policies approved by the previous ANC administration. “The new mayoral committee presides over departments and municipal entities which are managed and staffed by officials appointed by a different leadership. A skills audit is under way in order to ensure that the best people are in place.”
He said that although this was going to be a slow, meticulous process, it ‘will be done’ now that Mashaba was in charge.
He was aiming to strive for better service delivery. “There are initiatives under way to resolve the resultant problems. We shall deal fairly and firmly with all of this as part of a coordinated effort with the community and colleagues from neighbouring wards. We need our suburbs to be cleaner and safer,” Williams concluded.
