Municipality to address service delivery issues
The municipality met with Ward 33 councillor, Nicole Graham, to try come up with solutions to issues of service delivery in her ward.
A MEETING was held last week to discuss service delivery concerns raised by the Ward 33 councillor and residents.
After a number of complaints about service delivery from councillor, Nicole Graham, and residents, deputy city manager, Dr Musa Gumede, convened the meeting with several senior offcials from his cluster including the Department of Parks, Recreation and Culture, Durban Solid Waste (DSW) and Metro Police, as well as the heads of iTrump and Safer Cities.
The purpose of the meeting was to discuss continued service delivery concerns relating to parks, verges and trees, illegal dumping and cleanliness and the continued 'whoonga' problem in Glenwood. Issues around taxis and trucks in Umbilo were also raised, as well as speeding and traffic violations.
“For some time, many problems have been reported and discussed but no significant improvements have been made,” said Graham.
She said key outcomes of the meeting were a number of planned site visits between different departments, as well as improved mechanisms to monitor regular activities like street sweeping and the cutting of verges.
Deputy Head of DSW, Brian Mthembu, spoke of the possibility of including Ward 33 in the ongoing 'Clean My City' campaign. He also mentioned that DSW is advertising for, and will soon be employing, additional enforcement officers to deal with illegal dumping and littering.
Hoosen Moola from iTrump has undertaken to deal with the problematic Cleveland Mansions building, and hopefully assist with additional slum buildings subject to staff and structural challenges currently facing iTrump.
“It is my view that an Area Based Management Zone, encompassing the city and Berea, would improve basic service delivery and halt the problems we see. I have put this view forward to officials who are in the process of reviewing the zones. Until such time I will continue to liaise with senior municipal officials in an attempt to ensure basic service delivery improves,” said Graham.
