The Eldorado Park community was split in half as residents were up in arms marching against Cllr Dwain Ponsonby and Cllr Juwairiya Kaldine.
They claim that the two councillors are failing to serve their needs as residents of Ward 17 and Ward 18. The march took place on Saturday, November 04 from the Golden Highway to Eldos Police Station.
While a group of residents was marching up the road singing and chanting slogans against poor service delivery, member of the Patriotic Alliance (PA) together with the councillors and other residents were already at the station singing songs of liberation.
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“We are here to march for the sake of our service delivery and not to start violence. We have problems and all these problems can be resolved by a unified community. We need these councillors to be responsible in solving the issues they were elected for,” said one of the community leaders.
According to Stefanie Duiker, a community leader, the most important issue they are fighting against is poor service delivery. They are unable to utilise their facilities because their councillors are turning a blind eye on such problems.
“We don’t have halls to use as residents and our swimming pools are closed. Every year on Spring Day our pools are closed ever since the PA came into power and we must use our money to go enjoy other peoples’ facilities,” Duiker explained.
In the memorandum of demands delivered to the PA leadership, residents accuse Cllr Kaldine of favouring certain sections of Eldorado Park and not communicating with other sections of the community.
“They also accuse Cllr Ponsonby of openly “showing racial bias and discrimination towards residents of Kliptown.”
The memorandum goes on to list more than 20 complaints by unhappy residents and they demanded a response from the leadership within seven days.
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“Residents are within their rights to protest; however, out of respect we went to receive the memo without fear or favour.
“This is a political party at play and some of the issues raised will be dealt with and we will give full response in seven days,” said Cllr Peter Rafferty, Chief Whip of the PA in the City of Joburg after receiving the memorandum.
