Councillor Jill Humphreys reflects on challenges and milestones of her ward in 2024
Looking at some of the challenges for Ward 20 included the continued battle with ageing infrastructure.
As 2024 draws to a close, Ward 20 Clr Jill Humphreys reflects on a year marked by crucial challenges and notable achievements.
While infrastructure, water outages, and homelessness continued to pose challenges, residents and local officials made some strides in improving the area.
Looking at some of the challenges for Ward 20 included the continued battle with ageing infrastructure.
The area’s water system, in particular, faced numerous issues, including regular outages.
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According to Humphreys, despite ongoing pressure on Rand Water and the City of Ekurhuleni (CoE) Water Department, feedback remained limited, with many residents frustrated by slow responses.
She said feedback from Rand Water was mostly non-existent.
“They do not ‘engage councillors. Our officials in the water department share whatever crumbs of information they receive, as quickly and generously as possible,” explained Humphreys.
She said as part of their success the infrastructure would be getting an upgrade.
“The numerous petitions that were submitted regarding upgrading of the water infrastructure have been a success.
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These have been acknowledged and there will be a significant implementation of new pipes in eight of our roads.”
Another challenge is the homeless people and vagrants.
“With the collapsed economy there is a proliferation of these people – constantly setting up ‘nesting places’ on street corners, behind electrical mini-subs, on pavements, in open spaces and parks,” she said.
“EMPD is hard pressed to remove them as there are not enough homeless shelters. Moreover, most of the street people are addicts and will not adhere to any rules in the available shelters.
“They cannot be forced to stay. As a result, when they’re removed, they return immediately.”
“Of particular concern are a violent group of children, some of them now probably teenagers, who harass and intimidate motorists on Van Buuren Road.
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“Despite herculean efforts on the part of our Bedfordview CPF to manage, help and relocate them, they refuse and keep returning.
“Unfortunately, their addiction appears to be glue sniffing.
“They have been known to injure volunteer members of our CPF trying to relocate them,” added Humphreys.
On the environmental front, efforts to preserve areas like Gillooly’s Farm and Morninghill Koppie continued to face setbacks.
While plans to lease Gillooly’s Farm have been proposed, the process has been slow, and concerns about inadequate valuations persist.
The bottom line, officials note, is that unless the city makes leasing these areas viable for tenants, little progress will be made in protecting these valuable natural spaces as stated by Humphreys.
Meanwhile, the issue of worshippers conducting ceremonies in biodiverse areas such as Bill Stewart Nature Reserve remains contentious.
Violations of by-laws, including noise disturbances, illegal structures, and littering, have caused significant damage to the environment.
“While the rights of all cultures to pray must be respected, so must the rights of all our citizens in terms of the by-laws.
“Unfortunately, there are determined groups of worshippers that frequently and repeatedly transgress our by-laws.
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“EMPD cannot and usually does not respond because they only have one vehicle.
“As a result, our beautiful mountain areas are under threat,” she said.
“All of the above, vagrants and worshippers, lead to increased incidents of crime.
“It must be noted that the EMPD and SAPS as enforcement agencies are extremely weak.
“The community needs to be very grateful for the ongoing vigilance and responses of our local security companies and CPF,” stated Humphreys.
The pollution of the Jukskei River, stemming from inner-city Johannesburg, also remains an ongoing challenge.
Despite numerous meetings and engagements with officials from both the City of Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni, little progress has been made in addressing this matter.
She believes the solution lies in looking to bioremediation techniques as a potential solution to the pollution crisis.
Other challenges stated by the councillor are noise disturbance, illegal businesses as well as non-compliant building operations.
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Adding to the list are the property valuations, meter readings as well as the non-payment of refunds.
Her top priorities for 2025 are, “To have the water infrastructure upgrade implemented and augmented.
“To have our service delivery depots empowered to do what they are designed to do to grow the economy so that the numerous homeless people may find gainful employment and dignity of life.
“Bedfordview is home to many Captains of Industry and is a good place for this to happen.
“Development and business are to be encouraged.
“To also have bioremediation implemented in our Waste Water Treatment Plants and MOUs signed and implemented to increase Public Private Partnerships.”
She urged residents and businesses to continue to support initiatives such as the NPO Better Bedfordview that aim to uplift the areas.
