President of Mamelodi Concerned Residents for Service Delivery Oupa Mtshweni has bemoaned the recently delivered budget speech by City of Tshwane MMC for Finance Jacqui Uys.
This as the budget doesn’t address issues that are relevant to the residents of Mamelodi.
“We have been complaining for many years now about lack of streetlights as people get mugged in the dark,” said Mtshweni.
“We have also raised the issue of the abandoned reservoir which is situated by the mountainside in Mamelodi East but even today the matter has not been addressed, yet we were told that there is a budget for the reservoir,” lamented Mtshweni.
“We have a problem regarding many streets which are still gravel roads and after submitting numerous memorandums in this regard this issue gas also nit been addressed,” he said.
Mtshweni told Tshwane Talks that his party delivered a memorandum of grievances to the City of Tshwane on 19 April this year and we’re promised that all their grievances would be attended to, yet nothing has been done so far by the municipality to address the said grievances.
He complained about untarred roads and potholes in various streets of Mamelodi and that when they as the party lodged a complaint in this regard, they were told that such streets and roads do not exist on the map of Mamelodi.
“My question is if the said roads and streets are not in the map of Mamelodi, why then does the City of Tshwane charge people who live in those streets and roads for services? ” Fumed Mtshweni.
He said at the moment the City of Tshwane is putting tar on the main roads of the township while ignoring the inner streets.
He said residents of Mamelodi also requested for the erection of speed humps in the inner streets of the township but were told that there was no budget for the said speed humps, yet numerous speed humps have been erected on the main roads
“Where does the budget for erecting these speed humps come from because we have asked for such for a long time but were told there was no budget?” he asked.
He asked whether MMC Jacqui Uys conducted public participation meetings wherein residents were asked to make an input regarding their needs before delivering the budget speech.
Mtshweni lamented the fact that when it rains faeces from mal-functioning sewerage systems flood the streets of many areas in Mamelodi.
Mtshweni pointed out that there are several households wherein sewerage system is malfunctioning and gets blocked, yet the municipality takes a long time before attending to the crisis.
He bemoaned the fact that MMC Jacqui Uys announced that sewerage systems will be installed at informal settlements of Mamelodi, yet those informal settlements are not on the map of the municipality.
“We residents who have proof of residence get very slow service, but the municipality is quick to serve informal settlement dwellers,” he said.
“The problem with the city if Tshwane is that Mayor Cilliers Brink and MMC Jacqui Uys sur in their offices instead of doing rounds in the township to listen to the needs of the residents,” said Mtshweni.
Mtshweni claimed that there was never any proper “hand-over” between former Mayor Randall Williams and the incumbent Mayor Cilliers Brink, this as Brink has not addressed many issues which needed attention during Williams’ tenure as mayor.
“We only get to see the mayor on TV, newspapers and hear him on radio because he never comes to the people he is supposed to serve,” lamented Mtshweni.
According to Mtshweni, the mayor pushes his own agenda like in the case of the envisaged pre-paid meters where he would benefit from the tender of the installation of the said pre-paid meters.
Mtshweni asserted that Brink should have first consulted residents before installing the pre-paid meters to make sure that the meters won’t lead to residents paying more than R200 for monthly services.
“We want to know as to who we are working with regarding the new pre-paid meters as we are not sure if these meters belong to the City of Tshwane or to Eskom,” he said.
He pointed out that it would be the third time now that the city if Tshwane would be changing pre-paid electricity meters without consulting residents.
Mtshweni called for a public participation meeting (Imbizo) wherein the Municipality would respond to all the issues affecting the residents of Mamelodi.