A resident of ward 25 hopes to gather enough information regarding the metro’s poor service delivery in the area for the community to start a class action suit against the municipality.
Residents in Pomona Estates, Pomona residential, Bredell and Brentwood Park have been subjected to the non-performance and partial performance of services by the Ekurhuleni municipality over a number of years, said Hugh Clare-Talbot.
Services to residents, although not delivered or partially delivered, are billed for and expected to be paid for in accordance with the residents’ contracts with the municipality. This practice is unacceptable and unlawful, he maintains.
“It is the intention to record as thoroughly as possible, through the involvement of the entire community, of every service not delivered or partly delivered on a weekly basis. The information received from the community will be compiled into a report and issued to various officials on a weekly basis.”
These services, among others, include poor maintenance of road and electrical infrastructure; non-delivery of infrastructure such as roads, sewage and water services; failure to deal with raw sewage spilling into a wetland and private properties; failure to stop illegal squatting on private land.
The information gathering and reporting will continue until such time as the municipality has dealt with all the issues and/ or committed to a monitored time line in which these issues will be addressed or alternately until sufficient evidence is gathered to litigate a class action suit.
The weekly reports request feedback from the metro. No response has been received on the three reports sent to date.
Any and all feedback received from the municipality will be bulk mailed back to the community as soon as it is received.
This process does in no way intend to encourage the community to break the law by non-payment of services, Clare-Talbot said.
“This process sets out to ensure that one of the most basic legal principles in South Africa is upheld and that is where a community of citizens pay a municipality for services, that such services are delivered in full.
“This community individually have entered into contracts with the municipality for the provision of services. Such contracts require full performance by both parties. If residents in the community do not pay for the services, they are in breach of these contracts; likewise if the municipality does not deliver or only partly delivers such services paid for.”
The community is invited to join in this class action suit by contacting the email address below as well as to report on a continuous basis all incidents of non-performance via the following electronic media:
• pomonaclassaction@gmail.com or
• Pomona Class Action WhatsApp Group to which you will be added
The most important thing for the community is to report every incident of non-performance or partial performance.
Once this group reaches a critical mass of people, a meeting with regard to the class action suit will be arranged.
