Councillor Annette Deppe, of Ward 132, said her Region A is facing a leadership crisis, where the absence of a permanent regional director is frustrating residents and impeding service delivery.

Deppe is calling on the Johannesburg City Council to urgently address the issue, which she says has gone unresolved for over six months. “The lack of a permanent regional director for Region A has significantly hindered our ability to effectively address the needs and concerns of our community, particularly in relation to the Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) and other municipal services.”

Currently, Region A is being overseen by an acting regional director, who is also the permanent director of Region E, which includes Sandton and Alexandra. This dual responsibility, Deppe argues, is diluting the leadership focus needed to manage Region A’s unique demands. “This raises several pressing questions. Is the acting regional director adequately compensated for managing both regions? More importantly, how is he managing his time and resources to ensure both regions are effectively served?”

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Deppe said that she had personally contacted the acting regional director to discuss service delivery failures. “He told me that, pretty much Region A is running on its own, because the senior officials there pretty much know what they’re doing. So, he doesn’t have to spend that much time in Region A.

That to me is just not good enough. We cannot have a region operating with senior officials. I don’t believe that there’s enough accountability to senior officials in the region if we don’t have a permanent regional director.”

Deppe said the lack of oversight is directly affecting service delivery operations. “We have a regional service delivery group where all the officials are in there. We send reference numbers and issues to that group. When I speak to City Power or Joburg Water or even JRA, the depot managers tell me they never look at that group. So that doesn’t help us.”

She explained that even resident-generated complaints are falling through the cracks. Deppe admits that there are unresolved service requests in her ward, some of which have remained outstanding for more than two weeks.

“I’ve got sewerage problems in my ward that have been outstanding for two weeks, in different areas. I’ve had to eventually send it to the city manager so that he can address it with Joburg Water, because they just haven’t turned up. And the answers we get are that they don’t have jetting machines.”

According to Deppe, a permanent regional director would be responsible for coordinating responses and ensuring that service departments remain accountable.

“If we had a permanent regional director, he’d be on top of these things. But he’s not.” She listed City Power, Johannesburg Water, and JRA as the most severely affected departments.

“It is imperative that the Johannesburg City Council appoints a permanent regional director who is fully committed to serving Region A. Our community deserves consistency and dedication to meet the challenges we face and improve our overall quality of life. The continued reliance on acting directors must be addressed as a matter of urgency.” The city’s Nthatisi Modingoane was contacted for comment, which will be published once available.

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