Save Our Berea announces second monster meeting

eTHEKWINI City Manager, Sibusiso Sithole has confirmed his attendance at the second Save Our Berea Monster meeting which will take place on 22 April at 6.30pm for 7pm at St Thomas’ Anglican Church Hall Musgrave Road.Cheryl Johnson, one of the driving forces behind the Save Our Berea campaign said the City Manager would address the meeting on a number of issues.

“We believe Mr Sithole will come to the meeting with something positive to share that will leave Berea residents feeling confident that things will improve,” she said.

She said among the objectives for the meeting was that the City Manager would agree to set up a structure made up of decision makers from key municipal departments including Land Use Management, Health, Traffic, Parks, metro Police, Engineering and Surban Solid Waste to engage with Save Our Berea on a regular basis. This way, problems that arose could be brought to their immediate attention and solutions found to resolve them.

She said it was also the aim of Save Our Berea to have the City Manager extend the Urban Priority Zone to the suburbs of Glenwood, Berea and Sydenham under the management of the eThekwini Architectural Department which was the original initiator of the project. Jonathan Etkins, head architect at eThekwini, who initiated the UPZ project will also attend the meeting.

Johnson said the group believed that once the project was extended to include Glenwood, Berea and Sydenham, Glenwood’s problems with prostitutes, vagrants and beggars would dissipate.

She said Save Our Berea also wanted Mr Sithole to initiate a campaign to encourage his staff to report any internal and external suspicions or incidents of fraud, bribery and corruption.

On a more entertaining note, Ridwan, a well-known rap poet from Sydenham will also perform at the meeting.

All residents are urged to attend the meeting to hear what the City Manager has to say and raise concerns with those in authority.