ACTING MAYOR MOYA SAYS SERVICE DELIVERY WON’T BE HALTED EVEN THOUGH BRINK IS GONE

Acting City of Tshwane Mayor Dr Nasiphi Moya has assured residents of Tshwane that service delivery in the city won’t be halted, even though former mayor Cilliers Brink has been ousted as the City’s first citizen.

Dr Moya was on a “service delivery tour” in region 5 of Tshwane, which includes areas like Refilwe in Cullinan.

She also helped out to do community work by marking the road, clean up the illegal dumping and more.

She also took an opportunity and visit the business sites in Cullinan and engaged with local businesspeople.

“My visit here is to ensure that there is continuity in service delivery matters, and I have visited several regions in the City of Tshwane to monitor progress, and I would like to assure residents that service delivery won’t be halted because of the temporary vacuum at executive level in the city,” enthused Moya.

“Some of the common challenges in terms of service delivery are illegal dumping and lack of maintenance on infrastructure projects which lead to water and electricity supply being impossible to deliver, because the infrastructure is simply old and incapacitated,” explained Moya.

“The City is in a negative financial state, and we have an unfunded budget, which means some service delivery areas are not funded and as a result, we can’t deliver any services in those areas because there simply is no money to do that,” said Moya.

“You will realise that we are selective in our service delivery programmes because we have to prioritise as to which pothole or infrastructure project must undergo repairs, because the City is in a dire financial state,” she said.

She described Refilwe township in region 5 near Cullinan as a “forgotten community” and pointed out that this situation must be rectified as residents of the community have in a way cut ties with the City of Tshwane due to hopelessness regarding service delivery.

Dr Moya reiterated perceptions that there is lack of vigour in terms of service delivery in areas like Refilwe as compared to affluent areas like the Pretoria CBD and the Pretoria East suburbs.

“The message that I have sent to the city manager and all officials in the municipality is that when there is political instability, they as officials become the backbone of municipal government,” she said.

“It can’t be that they as employed officials get distracted from their duties because of political changes in the municipality, this as none of their responsibilities have been tampered with, and so they must continue with service delivery,” said Moya.

Ward 100 Councilor Johannes Bekker, whose Ward includes Cullinan, Rayton, Onverwacht, Pienaarspoort told Tshwane Talks that he appreciated the presence of Acting Mayor Dr Moya so that she would see for herself the issues that he is facing in his ward and be able to guide her officials properly in terms of what to do regarding service delivery issues in the area.

“My biggest issue is that though this ward is now part of Tshwane, Tshwane’s bylaws have not yet been promulgated in the area,” said Bekker.

He said with the said bylaws not in place yet, it becomes difficult for the Tshwane Metro Police Department to enforce any laws, and that lack of rezoning is also a major problem as this makes it difficult for formal and informal traders to do business,” he said.

“As things stand at the moment they can be chased away anytime from pieces of land where they are conducting their trade,” explained Bekker.

Ward 100 residents were happy to see the Acting Mayor in person and expressed their confidence in her service delivery programmes which they hope will bring improvements.

Dr Moya was accompanied by regional head of the City John Mokwena and city officials from different department.