THE community of Merebank is up in arms after residents were allegedly left in the cold.
While surrounding communities were compensated for the cancellation of city’s 2020 annual Senior Citizens’ Christmas party, the elderly in Merebank were not.
Since 2011, eThekwini Municipality holds various programmes for the elderly during the festive season. As part of the festivities, seniors are treated to lunch, entertainment and food hampers to enjoy during the holidays. The Christmas parties also provide a platform for them to engage on issues impacting their lives.
Due to coronavirus restrictions, the annual event was canned last year. To make up for it, the municipality made 600 food vouchers available to pensioners in their respective wards. These were to be distributed by councillors in the first week of February.
The Merebank community claimed that they never received such vouchers but were instead left out by their councillor, as always. They said the situation was made to be even more dire as these were the city’s efforts to provide relief to communities.
“The ward councillor needs to explain to the community where she has been. Covid-19 started in March last year but no one has never received any assistance from her. PR councillor Sthembiso Ngema is the only public representative we can truly say has been present and standing with the community. All we want is accountability of these vouchers. We want to know whether they were ever distributed and if so, to who and based on what criteria. Every time we call the councillor, there is no answer. We have reason to believe that people who aren’t from the ward were given vouchers by her. A lot of corruption is going on and we need it to stop,” said resident and community activist, Collin Pillay.
“There are pensioners who are faced with rent, water and electricity bills. They are faced with financial responsibilities even into their old age. Pensioners deserve these vouchers, in fact, they need them because they will go a long way,” said 72-year-old resident, Muniammah Sylvester.
Ward 75 PR Cllr Sthembiso Ngema who has sent several emails and queries to city officials said: “These vouchers were a council resolution since the city could not host the annual Seniors’ Christmas Party. As PR councillors, we do not get these vouchers, only appointed ward councillors do. The city had ample time to arrange for the vouchers to be allocated and distributed to the poor, knowing that we’re already in lockdown. Come Christmas time, the city couldn’t provide vouchers on time to seniors. That was one of many blunders. The community of Merebank (Navy and Chinatown) did not receive food parcels at the peak of Covid-19 last year when the councillors had been tasked to distribute parcels to less fortunate within their wards. There are rumours going around that these vouchers are being given to friends and relatives. One person was found with five vouchers in his possession. The community needs clarity on why they never received vouchers. If that case is not explained, it means that there is a problem. Come end of this year again, they will be side-lined, yet they are ratepayers. The leadership of eThekwini is poor and it is unacceptable.”
In response to the matter, ward 75 councillor Eunice Khanyile said that the 600 food vouchers would have never been sufficient to cover the many communities she serves within the ward. “There were volunteers appointed to distribute vouchers to identified disadvantaged areas. I was sick and unable to personally monitor this distribution. Community members are, however, welcome to come to my office for assistance. We will make efforts to get them vouchers from the Department of Social Development,” she said.
