Hospital View residents raise concerns with councillor at forum’s meeting
Makhadi responded to some of the grievances that were raised by the residents at a previous meeting on August 22
A public meeting of the Greater Hospital View Forum was held at Tersia King Learning Academy Hall on October 10.
Residents were given reports from the forum executive, the department of energy and other council departments.
Energy department Lilian Kobe would not address the residents in the presence of the media.
In the meeting, the residents raised difficulties they experienced in their areas.
Some of the concerns included the unavailability of ward councillor since the election of 2016. The residents complained about the high rate of crime, high rates of electricity, water pipe leakages, ageing infrastructure, faulty stormwater drainage system and the lack of effective leadership in Tembisa.
The forum claimed that Ward 89 councillor Gregory Raymond Malebo had not called a ward meeting since the election of 2016. They told Chief Whip of the metro Clr Jongizizwe Dlabathi this behaviour by the councillor was not acceptable.
Dlabathi then appointed Clr Mbulaheni Makhadi as an acting councillor for Ward 89 “until the ward councillor recovers fully to be able to resume his duties”.
Forum chairperson Elliot Manisi said they were concerned about the negative reports of poor services the community received from the local hospital. He said he had approached the provincial portfolio of health chairperson.
“Due to the poor conditions at the hospital, the matter has been escalated to the MEC for Health Gwen Ramokgopa.
“We were supposed to have had a meeting with the department in September, but it has been delayed. The meeting is still pending,” added Manisi.
Secretary of the forum Thabiso Mokose said the Integrated Development Plan (IDP) for 2018/2019 should have been reviewed during August/September but this did not happen.
“We’ve requested the municipality to erect speed calming methods and improve robot-channelling arrows on the Rev RTJ Mzamane Drive. There’s a lack of state facilities in the area. The only facility we have is the hospital. Other facilities such as clinics, library, schools, customer care centres, pay point, payment office, police station, EMPD offices are out of reach for our residents. We are forced to pay taxi fares or drive long distances to access all of these public services,” said Mokose.
One of the residents said they were concerned about a number of development projects which now and then mushroom around their area without their knowledge.
“Projects such as the renovations in the Tembisa Hospital, Rapid Bus Transport, WiFi cables, housing behind the hospital along the railway, companies along R21 freeway, all of these projects took place without us as ward residents being informed,” he added.
He said the law stipulates clearly that once a project has been approved, the ward councillor in the ward must call a ward meeting and provide information about the project.
Residents complained about hazardous odour allegedly from a company in Olifantfontein. They also expressed a concern about the local government building RDP houses next to their property and claimed this will devalue their houses.
Makhadi responded to some of the grievances that were raised by the residents at a previous meeting on August 22.
He also addressed several issues that concerned the residents and noted down new issues which raised in a public meeting.
Makhadi promised to address issues affecting the community of Hospital View. At the time of going to print, no response had been received from the City of Ekurhuleni.
