Hundreds of Ivory Park residents march for better municipal services
The march commenced at Ivory Park, Swazi Inn and ended at the Ivory Park North Hall where a memorandum of grievances was handed over to Raymond Arendse, a representative of City of Johannesburg Speaker of Council, Vasco Da Gama.
On July 28, hundreds of Ivory Park residents in Ward 133 took part in a protected march through the streets of Ivory Park for better municipal services in the area.
The march commenced at Ivory Park, Swazi Inn and ended at the Ivory Park North Hall where a memorandum of grievances was handed over to Raymond Arendse, a representative of City of Johannesburg Speaker of Council, Vasco Da Gama.
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Members of the Ivory Park SAPS, Springs SAPS and Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD) monitored the group until they dispersed. According to community leader, Tebogo Radebe, the community would like the Speaker of Council to create offices for PR Councillors next to the Ward Councillor’s offices.
“This will help the community not to be misled by councillors who have political agendas. The community will have someone else within the premise with whom they could verify information given to the community by the Ward Councillors. It will also create a good environment for transparent governance,” said Radebe.
He added that the community wanted the Speaker to schedule a meeting between community leaders, the ward councillor and himself so community service delivery challenges could be presented.
“We are concerned that it took eleven months to have ward committees in our ward. This delayed the residents’ right to govern as it is through the ward committee that the people will govern. Furthermore, we are not happy with how ward committees were elected. We would like the Speaker to alert the ward committees that they are not the councillor’s lap dogs. They are elected to encourage the involvement of communities and community organisations in the matters of local government,” explained Radebe.
He said the community demands a contact list of all elected ward committees be distributed amongst community members as soon as possible.
“Again, we are not happy with the false promises from the ward councillor. Residents residing at informal settlements were not happy at all. The ward councillor promised people housing developments last year, but nothing is being done. Radebe said the City of Johannesburg mayor has made it very clear that the City inherited a backlog of about 300 000 housing units and that the City would be able to deliver about 3 500 units per year.
“False promises force people to protest frequently,” he added.
Residents from Swazi Inn were seen holding placards stating, ‘Enough is enough’. Many chanted songs calling on people to take charge of their own area.
When he received the memorandum, Raymond Arendse promised to organise a meeting within 14 days with the relevant departments, to discuss the community’s grievances further.
