With various organisations like SANCO and Concerned Residents for Service Delivery in Mamelodi having planned a protest march and shutdown of the township for Wednesday 8 January 2025, Ward 28 Councillor Joyce Seelane has criticisised such a move.
“Stop listening to organisations that mushroom all over the place every day, we are in trouble because of such organisations which encourage residents to pay as little as R40 or R50 for rent, and if residents, especially the elderly continue listening to such organisations then they will forever live in anxiety and illnesses that they are suffering from like sugar diabetes will get out of control,” said Seelane.
She emphasised that in the past elderly people used to pay their rent on time but have now been misled by some organisations in the township, based on the lie that the municipality and the government were doing nothing for the residents.
“The problem with the people of Mamelodi is that they follow mob psychology and get influenced by stories and ideas that sound nice to their ears without considering consequences,” said Councillor Seelane.
She pointed out that the municipality is not cruel and that it is not forcing those who can’t pay their rent to do so.
She said those who are pensioners and have kids who are not employed must make affidavits and show that their overall income is less than R3000 and their debt will be cancelled gradually as they will be put in the Poorest of the Poor (POP) programme whereby they will get free water and electricity.
“The municipality is waiting for you to come and explain your situation and you must listen to your Councillors for advice regarding the rent issue and not listen to advice from people in the streets or these new organisations, you will find yourself in trouble,” warned Seelane.
In response to Councillor Seelane’s statement, President of Concerned Residents for Service Delivery in Mamelodi Oupa Mtshwene said the following:
“We are not against what she’s saying, all that she is saying is due to to the fact of ‘work protection’ and we will be marching and delivering our memo as planned and her seniors will respond to what we will deliver because she cannot respond to our grievances as she has no authority to do so.” said Mtshwene.
Mtshweni then added the following:
“She’s trying to weaken us before we march so that we can respond and have nothing to say on the day of the march 8 January 2025.”
Mamelodi SANCO Zonal Secretary Joseph Kgatle said the following:
“Councillor Seelane doesn’t know what she is talking about because she is employed by the community to be a Councillor and today she wants the selfsame community to be in debt.”
“She is getting into a terrain that is not hers and just because she has removed rubbish from some area of the township she thinks everybody must be happy and forget about the rent issue,” said Kgatle.
“The POP programme she is talking about is not working as the social workers working on it are taking their time before enrolling residents in the programme,” enthused Kgatle.
“The Councillor must not say we are mushrooming because SANCO has been there for the longest time and we can’t afford the exorbitant amount of money that the City of Tshwane wants us to pay,” he said.
“The Councillor speaks from a privileged background because she earns more than R40 000 per month, what about a person who doesn’t earn even a single cent in a month?”fumed Kgatle.
“She can’t speak that nonsense because we campaigned for the ANC as SANCO and we campaigned so that our people must have freedom and also financial freedom because they can not always be in stress due to the exorbitant debt that the municipality is imposing on them,” he said.
“No one has ever said residents must not pay rent, we have not reached that level yet, but what we can attest to is that people must not rush to make arrangements like paying R29000 if one has bridged their electricity, because they can’t afford that amount,” he said.
“People can’t afford R6000 for rent, let alone the R29000 that is expected of them by the municipality,” emphasised Kgatle.