Executive mayor visits Ward 112
HALFWAY HOUSE - Executive Mayor Parks Tau and the mayoral committee met with Midrand residents of Ward 112 to shed light on the direction the area intends to go.
The meeting held at Halfway House Primary school also sought to address service delivery issues within the ward. The committee included MMC of Transport, Christine Walters and MMC for Public Safety, Sello Lemao, MMC councillor, Nonceba Molwele and regional director, Abigail Ndlovu.
Councillor Nonceba Molwele facilitated the meeting and thanked residents for their attendance.
A few residents raised billing, service delivery and land issues, and the problem of squatters in Midrand. A pensioner, Ron van Lear told the mayor of his billing problem. “For more than 15 years I have had the same water billing issue,” he said. “I refuse to pay a fictitious amount that I never incurred.”
Another resident, Ronnie Mckenzie told the mayor that Midrand was a business community, but residents did not benefit in any way from it.
In response to some of the issues raised, Tau said the city council had rebates directed at pensioners such as Van Lear. He also pointed out that government and business must find common ground so that citizens could benefit from businesses in their communities.
He assured residents that the city council wanted to redress challenges communities faced by reducing poverty, providing better health and dealing with the problem of unemployment.
Tau said, “42 percent of the people in the city go without food on a daily basis. We want to reduce food insecurity as well.” He added that the city council was “financially in the best shape with a net surplus of R3.4 billion at the end of June 2013”.
“The city’s total assets increased to R60.1 billion up from R56.37 billion in the 2011/2012 period. We concluded the year with a progressive increase in cash and cash equivalents of R5.4 billion.”
Speaking about the challenge of having to meet the demand for electricity, Tau said, “The city is open to proposals for a future energy mix. This should include the increased utilisation of gas and other alternative greener energy sources.” He explained that the city needed to introduce water saving devices and conservation measures such as rainwater harvesting, to try and meet the present and future demand for water in the city.
The mayor revealed that eight city council officials had been arrested in the past three weeks for corruption, and the city council would continue to clamp down on corruption.
Vorna Valley residents association representative, Sue Klingenberg said the association would reflect on the mayor’s address.
