Westbury: ‘Let’s not demand and fight each other’
The main focus of the meeting went around the shortages of jobs in the community.
A public meeting was held for Wards 82 and 69 at the Westbury Recreation Centre hosted by the Johannesburg Development Agency (JDA) to discuss employment in the community.
The meeting was called by Councillor Susan Stewart and the Greater Sophiatown Local Socio-Economic Development Forum.
The main focus of the meeting went around the shortages of jobs in the community and issues which the residents had with the construction companies.
The coordinator of the meeting, Shane Fourie addressed three main issues which the forum felt were important to address.
These were:
(1) JDA needs to communicate better and more efficiently with residents. “We ask for community involvement from the beginning of the project until the end. That will stop questions of ‘when did that happen?'” said Fourie.
(2) The forum had meetings with residents from the wards and found that those who were employed in current projects are actually not living in the community.
In his address, Fourie asked JDA representatives, “Why don’t you just go to the flats and ask who is unemployed and then you can employ those people, the ones who are waking up with that dust in their faces?”
(3) The representatives of the forum wanted to find out why Small, Medium and Micro-Sized Enterprises (SMME) are constantly being used by JDA, and they spoke about how successful SMMEs should apply and rejoin the queue like the rest of the SMMEs.
According to Siya Genu, executive manager of JDA, they are responsible for the building of a pedestrian bridge in Ward 82, they are working on the sidewalks in Commando Road, they have built Phase One of the stormwater drains, the Westbury TDC and the Claremont Clinic.
At the end of the month, it has been said that a contractor will be employed to start with Phase Two of the stormwater drains at the Union Stadium. There are projects which are being planned for next year already.
Issues of keeping labourers hyper-local were also discussed in the meeting as they asked JDA to employ everyone from the community, no matter how big or small the job may be, let everyone be from the community.
Fourie spoke on how some SMME’s are problematic because they do incomplete jobs and then the community has to suffer from the result of their poor work.
He made an example of when he visited the Westbury Clinic which had been newly renovated and was standing against the wall, as he moved away, one of the tiles fell out.
The ceilings have already started leaking as well and he cannot understand how that was possible.
He said that SMMEs should do a quality job and not just come in to take the money and then leave the community to live with their poor workmanship.
Councillor Stewart discussed how the SMMEs and residents bad mouth each other. She said, “Let’s start supporting each other, let’s work together, don’t demand and fight each other.”
The meeting was a full house with residents from five different wards present.
The Greater Sophiatown Local Socio-Economic Development Forum representatives will be handing over a memorandum to JDE in order to seek solutions for future projects.
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