The Councillors of Action SA in the city sat for their very first Johannesburg imbizo at Naledi Hall, Soweto on August 27 to discuss pressing issues facing the old Township.
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Convening under the theme “Bringing Legislature into the community”, the imbizo was part of the political party’s on-going campaign across the City of Joburg to engage with communities on matters pertaining to housing, economic development, public safety and transport.
Fundzi Ngobeni, Caucus Leader and MMC for transport in the City of Joburg said the aim of the imbizo was to engage with communities who continue to be side lined by the city when it come service delivery.
He further added this was in hopes of restoring faith and bridging the gap between politicians and communities on the ground.
“This is particularly important because we come back and report what we are doing in council and it allows us to also hear from communities on what are the pressing issues they want us to champion,” Ngobeni told Urban News.
Addressing the residents’ frustration with the housing backlog and on-going electricity challenges, he described the strained relations between Soweto and Eskom to be the biggest failure by the power utility which he suggested “was time the debt be scrapped” in order to move forward.
In addition, he revealed that the party would be tabling a motion during a council meeting on August 31 to “do right and fight for Soweto people with Eskom.”
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The motion will focus on the power utility and demand that the mayor and executive prioritize Soweto as one of the places that are prone to blackouts and be integrated into City Power as of the 2022 and 2023 financial year.
“We want the executive to submit a report within 100 days outlining the impact of integrating Eskom customers into city power.
“They must submit a report to council outlining the city’s plan to integrate Eskom customers.
“They must develop terms of reference for intergovernmental relations process with the department of energy, mineral resources and Eskom within 30 days.
“They must initiate the process to engage the national treasurer for extra budget for this integration,” Ngobeni explained.
Safety MMC, David Tembe also took to the podium to address public safety and crime concerns in the city and Soweto.
He assured residents that they would be seeing massive changes and JMPD visibility in coming weeks as plans were in place to increase personnel on the ground.
“We are thrilled to announce that there will be more police officials from the Johannesburg Metro Police Department (JMPD) which will be deployed in the next weeks. You will see the difference,” he told attendees.
“This will ensure that we curb high crime stats and strengthen the relationships between the Community Policing Forums and Patrollers as well as law enforcement.”
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