EDITOR – After 28 months of activism, and at the start of a new year, Save Our Berea feels it is time we took a critical look at our progress.
Have we made an impact? Have we achieved anything? We believe the answer is a resounding YES. There is no official in the eThekwini municipality that does not know who we are, and that our message, loud and clear is getting through.
However, such is the arrogance of many of our public servants that they do not even seem to be embarrassed when caught not doing their jobs, or when found to be guilty of mismanagement or worse. In fact some of the people who run our city appear to think they are untouchable and that they have no obligation to listen to the people they are employed to serve. This has to change.
There are two areas that we would like to concentrate on this year. Both are tainted by what we call an ’Up Yours’ attitude. By this we mean those public officials and politicians, as well as certain fellow citizens, who seem to not care when their actions impact negatively on our city’s law-abiding residents.
The first are the politicians and public officials who when faced with pertinent questions from the people, just ignore those questions. The time has come to up the ante and demand they give us answers we seek by using the constitution to enforce our rights, be it through the Information Act, the Human Rights Commission or the Public Protector (and if needs be, the courts).
Our City also has an Integrity and Investigation Unit, the existence of which is generally not known by the public. What do they do? Seemingly not too much, but we feel that ratepayers should know that it is the responsibility of this unit to investigate corruption and other misdemeanors and that the information in those reports, ratepayers have the right to know. Yet despite the enormous budget the city spends on their communication and PR departments, we wonder how many ratepayers have engaged them or had any success getting them to deliver?
The second area of concern is what we have previously, termed the “Trojan Horses.” Trojan Horses are privately owned properties that have been left to deteriorate thereby creating a health hazard and an eyesore for the neighborhood. Allegedly the reason behind this is to undermine Amafa regulations and to ease the way for the owners to acquire a demolition permit.
These rogue owners show no concern whatsoever for the rights of the residents living near their derelict properties and appear to be unperturbed by the distress they cause because They don’t live there. And even when they are served with notice by eThekwini enforcement, they appear to be quite happy to string out the legal process, a process that appears, at the end of the day, to have no teeth. We have taken legal advice and we believe that ratepayers have the right to know who these rogue owners are. And we believe that this is the year to name and shame them including those who hide behind companies and CCs.
Kevin Dunkley
Cheryl Johnson
SAVE OUR BEREA
