Rudolf Herbst prioritises service delivery and infrastructure in Ward 106

1. What are the three biggest challenges currently facing your ward, and how will you address them?

My first priority is reliable basic services, particularly water and electricity. Second, ageing roads, sewers, and stormwater infrastructure too often receive only temporary repairs. Third, I will ensure growth is properly planned.

The VF Plus supports sustainable development, but we must assess its impact on traffic and services, fund the required upgrades, and hear residents. My oversight work has taught me to examine the plans and costs behind a promise. I will apply that scrutiny to all three priorities in Ward 106.

2. How will you improve basic service delivery such as water, electricity, refuse removal and road maintenance?

These services need different solutions. Water requires leak repairs, pressure management and replacement of failing pipes.

Electricity requires substation and cable maintenance, along with clear information during outages.

Refuse removal requires dependable routes, vehicles, and recovery plans for missed collections. Roads need scheduled maintenance and proper reinstatement after excavations.

During the repeated Z9 outages, I sought updates on affected areas and followed up on streets still without power after broader restoration. As ward councillor, I will take recurring failures in each service to the responsible department for a specific corrective plan.

3. What specific plans do you have to improve community safety and reduce crime in the ward?

I will hold regular discussions with SAPS, EMPD, CPFs, residents, and businesses around identified crime hotspots, especially where infrastructure theft, neglected public spaces, or unlawful activity affects safety.

Each organisation must leave with a clear responsibility that I can check at the next meeting. I will also pursue action on dangerous intersections and work with the responsible road authority where a traffic signal falls outside the municipality’s control. Policing and municipal maintenance must work together.

4. How will you ensure that residents are kept informed and involved in decisions affecting the community?

During service interruptions, I have shared the information available to me, including when the municipality could not give a restoration time.

As ward councillor, I will use ward meetings and the ward committee to hear residents’ priorities before submitting them to the City. Development proposals need particular care: people who favour a proposal and people who oppose it must both have access to the plans, studies and participation process.

I will put their substantive questions to the decision-makers and share the answers.

5. What will you do to support local businesses, informal traders and job creation in the ward?

Ward 106 includes the Alberton CBD, where businesses and informal traders depend on safe access, clean surroundings and workable municipal processes.

I will engage them on trading space, permits, waste facilities and consistent by-law enforcement. I will also raise municipal delays that discourage investment or disrupt existing businesses. Having worked in the private sector, I understand that keeping a business operating protects jobs.

I will help connect employers and training providers with residents seeking skills and opportunities, without promising jobs a councillor cannot create.

6. How will you improve conditions in informal settlements and underserved areas within the ward?

I will ask Human Settlements and the service departments for a clear assessment of any unserviced or informally occupied area: who owns the land, what services can lawfully be provided, and what the housing plan and time frames are.

Residents need dignity and honest answers, while the City must respect land-use and safety requirements. Underserved residents also live in municipal accommodation.

At Silwerkroon in Raceview, the City must account for maintenance, accessibility and vacant units. I will pursue a funded plan rather than another open-ended assurance.

7. What is your plan to address infrastructure problems such as potholes, sewage spills, streetlights and illegal dumping?

I will prioritise sewage spills and dangerous potholes for urgent site inspections, then question repeated failures and the quality of reinstatement.

My Transport, Roads and Stormwater Oversight experience will help me push for lasting solutions, including addressing drainage problems in Raceview.

Streetlight faults should be assessed by location and electrical cause, rather than repeatedly closed without working lights. At dumping hotspots, the City needs both dependable collection and by-law enforcement. Each problem calls for the right department and a repair that holds.

8. How will you ensure municipal funds allocated to the ward are spent transparently and effectively?

As the VF Plus Chief Whip and a member of Infrastructure Oversight, I have questioned incomplete asset information, land-audit costs and departmental accounts of unfinished work.

I will examine Ward 106 projects against the approved budget, specifications, completion dates and actual expenditure. Where the work is delayed or substandard, I will request the supporting records and raise the matter through council oversight. Residents should know what was approved, what was paid and what was delivered.

9. What programmes or initiatives would you introduce for young people, women and vulnerable residents in the community?

I would bring existing schools, community organisations and service providers together around three practical efforts.

For young people: access to sport, mentorship and credible skills programmes. For women: links to safety services and support for those starting or running small enterprises. For older residents and people with disabilities: assess access to municipal buildings, pavements, and services, then act on the barriers identified.

I would work with organisations already serving residents and measure whether these partnerships reach people.

10. If elected, how will residents be able to hold you accountable and measure your progress over the next five years?

I will establish a public baseline of Ward 106’s priority problems and approved projects at the start of the term. Each quarter, residents will be able to compare that baseline with completed repairs, delivered projects, money spent, and issues still unresolved.

I will also account for commitments I have made and answers I have sought from the Executive. Residents should be able to judge me on the state of the ward and whether I have consistently pursued their concerns over the past five years.