Parkview and Parkwood residents map a way forward
Parkview and Parkwood have a pipe replacement project which is ongoing.
Parkview residents gathered at Jan Celliers Laerskool en Preprimêr on February 16 for a community meeting following the City of Johannesburg’s intervention to alleviate water outages.
Parkview Residents’ Association’s chair, Philanie Jooste said the community was tested beyond measure over the past few months.
“Enabling change in a broken system takes huge collaboration and effort. We have aging and breaking pipes in Parkview but have a way forward under the Parkview and Parkwood pipe replacement project.”
Jooste added that the project was a result of many years of campaigning by Ward 117 councillor Tim Truluck and Ward 87 councillor Belinda Steer as well as the product of many complaints by the residents’ associations, schools, and churches in the suburbs.
She noted that a catalyzation came with the recent protest organised by Stuart Norman and other concerned residents which led to the different entities concerned being involved after years of our concerns falling on deaf ears.
Saxonwold and Parkwood Residents Association (Sapra) chairman, Bill Haslam commended Norman’s leadership skills.
“One needs to get involved in his or her community which is where the essence is. We are all unfortunately in a rather depressive state due to the lack of service delivery and the best solution to that is to ask yourself, ‘How can I get involved and how can I step forward’ because we can see from Stuart’s proactiveness that his actions have had a phenomenal impact.”
Haslam noted that the best part of Parkview’s recent project of working together was one way of getting the city council to stand up, take notice, and dust off plans to reticulate all the water pipes in the area.
Parkview resident, Norman said if the community was not, it would not be able to solve anything.
” I have shared my views with the PRA that R600 annually is not enough, I think we should consider doubling our PRA membership fees meaning we go R50 to R100 per month. I have also learned that more than half of the residents of Parkview are not on the WhatsApp group but have enjoyed the benefits of easy problem-solving.”
He added that he could not imagine living in a community where he was not part of the communication group or part of the Resident Association and not contributing towards it.
The resident said the following are steps decided to be taken by residents for a better functioning community:
- Increase membership in residents’ associations
- Map out key office holders in the city’s positions
- Identify key skills among our residents and who can contribute time
- Improved communication between neighbouring suburbs
- Joint problem-solving.
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