Councillor Phillip Nothnagel of Ward 5 in Emfuleni, writes this open letter to Emfuleni Mayor Morane:
Honourable Mayor Maruti Morane,
I want to start by congratulating you on your appointment as new Mayor of ELM, as the Councillor of Ward 5.
I think that your most important challenge as Mayor will and must be, to address the all but total collapse of service delivery in Emfuleni.
Background of problems
Gauteng Premier, Honourable David Makhura visited the Vaal Triangle on 28 October 2015. During a public meeting held with residents, as part of the Ntirhisano Service Delivery Community Outreach Program, the Premier made several promises to our residents.
The Premier said, and I quote “the municipality cannot provide even the most basic of services. “This is unacceptable, and we will make sure your concerns are addressed urgently, we will shake up this municipality to ensure we deliver,” he added “I wish to make it unequivocally clear that I will not tolerate any delays with regard to the delivery of services Necessary action will be taken should any delays be experienced”.
Looking back at the Premiers visit nearly three and a half years ago, a disconcerting situation has arisen. Most of the problems regarding the delivery of basic service delivery items, that were pointed out to the Premier, have not been addressed.
Since the Premier’s visit the Municipality has also been put under intervention under sections 139(1)b(i) and 139(5)(a) of The Constitution. Even this intervention has not changed the bad service delivery situation at ELM.
I would like to draw your attention to some of the most important matters that need to be addressed urgently: –
* Infrastructure defects, especially water leaks not being fixed on time.
* Streetlights not working for months on end. This is one of the most important reasons why incidents of housebreaking and house robberies have increased in Emfuleni.
* Potholes not fixed. Indeed, the number of potholes has increased and worsens daily. The problems regarding potholes are reaching crisis proportions
* Road maintenance is not done. The state of the roads is so bad that it scares off potential investors and visitors to ELM.
* Lack of road markings and traffic signs which creates road safety hazards.
* Neglected pavements, storm water drains and overgrown parks and open spaces.
* The lack of refuse removal.
* Collapsed water waste system in the Vaal Triangle.
* Lack of quality control over outsourced maintenance services.
* Officials not answering telephones, messages and correspondence.
* Wrong billing in respect of water and lights accounts.
* Property taxes not reinvested into areas where the taxes are paid (taxpayers see no return on the taxes paid by them).
* Lack of By-law enforcement e.g. illegal buildings, advertisements and businesses, which seems to be ignored by ELM officials.
I trust that you will give your urgent attention to numerous unsolved problems that go back several years. This includes the Allegations of fraud and corruption that has crippled ELM over the last number of years. Refer the latest report in Vaalweekblad titled “ELM smashes ‘mother of all mafias’ internal syndicate
We are fast approaching the stage where loyal taxpayers are going to revolt and use all possible legal avenues of withholding their monthly payments to ELM. The public is fed up with and have lost all confidence in ELM. This situation cannot be allowed to go on.
Regards
Phillip Nothnagel
Councillor
Ward 5
