An open letter to MMC Moerane
We as ward councillors have resorted to writing this open letter to you in an attempt to highlight the plight of the residents of Region F2, which we like to refer to as our beloved Southern Suburbs!
MMC, we would like to invite you to come to this region during the next week so that we can highlight to you the challenges we are experiencing in terms of lengthy power outages, regular water disruptions and litter strewn across many of the streets.
With regards to the power outages, the turnaround times have seemingly gone from four hours to a minimum of four days! This is certainly unfair on the residents as not only have we entered the cold winter season but due to the length of the outages people are losing their groceries.
This is indeed a cruel blow to many of these families during these tough economic times.
Some schools battle to operate under these circumstances. It is also unfair that certain suburbs seem to have daily outages, and this makes lives very difficult for people who are supposed to work from home.
The power outages appear to get worse during the winter months seemingly due to the high number of illegal connections within the region. MMC, surely an audit needs to be done of these illegal connections and the people who are connecting to the grid illegally should be given a notice that they need to become compliant.
The areas supplied by the South Hills water tower have had little to no water supply for the past week. I’ve been told by Johannesburg Water that this is due to the low levels of the reservoir that supplies it.
The Xavier Reef tower has also had issues. This has a direct impact on the resident’s day to day lives. Needless to say, that chapter two of South Africa’s Constitution states that “everyone has the right to have access to sufficient food and water”. MMC a serious investigation needs to take place with regards to these water supply issues”.
Finally, MMC if you were to drive through suburbs such as La Rochelle, Rosettenville, Bellavista, Turffontein, and Regents Park you find litter all over many of the streets, pavements and local parks.
There is a dire need for Pikitup to conduct an audit of the bins per household, to see if the households have sufficient bins that include those who live in backyard dwellings. We also need Pikitup to drive education campaigns around the health and safety risks of illegal dumping.
MMC please feel free to contact us if you would like further insight.
Councillors Michael Crichton, Tyrell Meyers, Stuart Marais, Rashieda Landis, Faeeza Chame, Peter Stewart, Matsobane Sekhu.
• City of Johannesburg was contacted for a response. At the time of going to print no response has been received.
