PA denies allegations against councillors
Cllr Rafferty rubbished all these claims saying issues of the Ward Committee were resolved and all members work well with the councillors.
The Patriotic Alliance (PA) Chief Whip in the City of Joburg, Cllr Peter Rafferty has called on all stakeholders to come together and work with the councillors of Ward 17 and 18 in Eldorado Park and Kliptown.
Cllr Rafferty said they are willing to work together for the good of the community and service delivery despite insults and political undertones from some community leaders.
These remarks form part of the response to a memorandum of demands delivered to him and other leaders of the PA on November 4 by a group of disgruntled residents of Ward 17 and 18.
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This group of Kliptown and Eldos residents accused Cllr Dwain Ponsonby and Cllr Juwairiya Kaldine of failing the two areas when it comes to service delivery. They went on to level other allegations against them including assault and intimidation.
In his response letter, Cllr Rafferty denied all these claims saying attacks on councillors interfere with their work.
“The matter has gone so far that false cases and protection orders were made against them. The cases mentioned in your memorandum have been thrown out of court due to not having any merit,” said Cllr Rafferty in his response letter to the memorandum.
He went on to put no record that there is no security company owned by Cllr Ponsonby and Cllr Kaldine.
In their memorandum, residents also accused Cllr Ponsonby of being autocratic and replacing the officially elected Ward Committee with his “self-appointed task team.”
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Cllr Rafferty rubbished all these claims saying issues of the Ward Committee were resolved and all members work well with the councillors.
“Most recently the entire ward committee put a complaint against Ward Committee member, Petunia Bailey based on her conduct and continuous false allegations against the members and councillor with the City,” continued Cllr Rafferty.
With regards to issues of service delivery, the Chief Whip acknowledged the task at hand for the councillors of the two wards and sad that is why they are always on the ground with the people.
He went on to say that councillors attend to service delivery issues every day and report back to the people.
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“The proof of community meetings and project meetings is available at any time from our ward governance officer who acts as the secretary of the ward committee,” explained Cllr Rafferty. “The Kliptown upgrade process has been communicated to residents of Kliptown, including service upgrades that deal with Boundary Road, including the BRT route since early 2021. The electrification of Kliptown was the first part of that intervention.”
He added that not everything can be done at once as it depends on the availability of the budget and urged the community to work together with the councillors.
