Every morning, Thsepo Phetoe walks out of his home in Munsieville, warily eyeing the tree at the entrance to his front yard. He fears that one day a strong enough wind might knock the tree over, destroying either his or his neighbour’s house.
“Our houses are in danger. None of us here is working. So if this tree falls on this house, who’s going to fix it? Last time I got a quotation, they told me it would be about R10 000. Where am I going to get R10 000?”
Thsepo believes the tree is ‘dead’ inside, although it seems fairly healthy. The second point that he brought up seemed more likely; the tree seems very tall in relation to its girth. Thsepo showed the News a video on his phone to substantiate his fears that a strong wind would blow down the tree.
The pine cones often fall on cars and many pedestrians on the sidewalk have almost been hit, he explained, adding that some of the branches, which seem to be decaying, might crash down on his home.
Thsepo reportedly had been to see the Integrated Environmental Management (IEM) section (parks department) of the Mogale City Local Municipality (MCLM) in person. He claimed he requested that the tree be removed, but was told that the tree was inside his property and that they could not cut it down. Thsepo maintained that the tree was just outside his property’s border.
The problem is that Thsepo didn’t submit a formal request and didn’t receive a reference number from the MCLM.
As they had done with similar requests by the News in the past, the MCLM responded by saying that a matter such as this must be reported to the municipality directly, and that residents should not contact the News about service-delivery issues. “The News, which has been repeatedly requested to advise customers accordingly, appear to rather develop a story and delay the customer complaint being dealt with,” Adrian Amod, MCLM communications representative had said in a previous statement.
The News often receives complaints from resident not getting any response when contacting the MCLM about municipal issues. It is the News’ policy to make sure that a disgruntled resident has raised a particular issue with the MCLM first before considering to follow up on it. It is the media’s responsibility to report on the public’s concerns about their local municipality, and the News will continue to do its job.
“My plea is for them to come and help us regarding this tree. If I was working I’d be able to call people to come and cut the tree,” Thsepo said.
Residents are requested to always first report their issues to the municipality then to their ward councillor and if the issue remains unresolved you are welcome to contact the News.
Integrated Environmental Management can be contacted by sending an email to Patricia Tshitema at patricia.tshitema@mogalecity.gov.za and Keneilwe Sesiko at keneilwe.sesiko@mogalecity.gov.za.
