Councillor Vino Reddy’s plea resolves revenue issues in Ward 93 suburbs

Councillor Vino Reddy’s initiative is a perfect example of ‘knowledge is power’ in action.

By requesting the City of Joburg’s Revenue Services Department to provide relevant information to residents in Ward 93, he addressed complaints that residents had regarding their rebate processes and other revenue-related concerns.

For six weeks, residents were able to get answers directly from the officials and many of their issues were resolved.

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Reddy said the programme was introduced by the revenue services in Ward 103. When he first became aware of it, he thought it would be a great initiative for residents in his ward who had a lot to complain about.

“I asked how can I get it done in Ward 93 because the needs and services are very important to the residents,” he said. “We have a large number of elderly residents and they find going to the walking-in centres quite daunting and due to their health, sometimes it is a bit of a challenge.

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“There are transport challenges and sometimes the residents say the typical response from the city is not really receptive. We know that the elderly should be prioritised, they should be in front of the queue, which doesn’t happen a lot of the time.”

He added the programme was still on a trial basis and he had asked them to extend it to Ward 93 for the benefit of the residents and each time, the response from the residents had been great.

“The attendance has been very good. A lot of the people showed a lot of interest and because there’s been a lot of repeated interactions in the ward, people were able to come back again and query. So, that was so satisfying for me to see.”

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