City of Johannesburg’s councillor, Lionel Greenberg, denies the claims by a local resident accusing him of being less effective and focusing on useless issues affecting them in the Johannesburg north-east suburbs.
A resident, Tristan de Wal, has written a letter to the North Eastern Tribune accusing Greenberg of lacking as a councillor claiming he does not prioritise pressing issues that affect the residents in Ward 72.
Read: New Ward 72 councillor Greenberg talks service delivery
In the letter, De Wal accuses Greenberg of being rude, not effective as expected and even of leaving their online community correspondence group – a telegram group, which they use to effectively liaise with one another
Also, De Wal claims that Greenberg does not reside in the ward suggesting that he is not the right person to lead the residents there.
“I have found him to not be focusing on the actual problems at hand; he is hiding and is not publishing what he is doing,” claimed De Wal in the letter.
“When confronted, he has been extremely rude to me and has pretty much tossed me aside. To my knowledge, he doesn’t even live in the area.”
De Wal even attached his WhatsApp conversations with Greenberg and claims that Greenberg has even asked another person to speak on his behalf.
Read: Lionel Greenberg is the newly elected DA councillor for Ward 72
“This just does not give a good impression at all! Also by using his ‘ticket system’ he can make up any stats he wants by not making anything public. I am horrified by this and I don’t think it represents the Democratic Alliance’s (DA’s) point of view very well,” he said.
Responding to the claims, Greenberg denied all the allegations made by De Wal and said they are knowingly ‘fallacious’ and ‘false’.
“Given the defamatory contents of the email by De Wal, which contents I deny ever receiving, I have referred this matter to my attorneys for the record and have instructed them to take the appropriate legal action in the circumstances, given the allegations,” said Greenberg.
“I place on record that I invited Tristan de Wal to convey his issues to me either by WhatsApp or by utilising the Ward 72 ticket system and same was communicated to all members on the telegram group – Tristan de Wal has refused to engage.”
Greenberg claims that he has checked his emails and searched for De Wal’s address but no messages have been sent to him from this email address.
De Wal also claims that his home has been broken into several times and he reported the matter to Greenberg, however, as a councillor he has done nothing about his situation.
Greenberg said, “As a councillor, matters concerning the police, investigating crime and crime prevention falls within the ambit of the national government more specifically, the minister of police.”
Since his induction as a councillor, he said he is yet to see De Wal in any of the community policing forum’s (CPF) meetings, addressing his security issues.
Read: Neighbouring councillors to assist in Ward 72 municipal issues
Furthermore, he said that he has informed the residents that he will not be participating on the telegram group because his phone, given the volume of messages, utilises specialised software to coordinate them and unfortunately this software is not available on the telegram.
He suggested that De Wal use other ways to contact him citing WhatsApp, email, ticket system or cellphone.
Meanwhile, Greenberg has requested that De Wal provide him with a police case number and the station where he reported the incident of the break-in that he alleges he brought to his attention.
Details: tenacioustristan@hotmail.co.uk or ward72da@gmail.com.
Share your views about Councillor Lionel Greenberg’s leadership in Ward 72 by posting on the North Eastern Tribune Facebook page.
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