ANC councillor candidate tackles Midrand’s issues

The Midrand Reporter has asked councillor candidates from different parties to answer five questions posed by members of the community. The Democratic Alliance and the EFF parties have already had their candidates tackle the questions.

In this edition, ANC’s Boitumelo Mathulo addresses these issues.

Q: In light of Midrand’s growing population, are there any suggestions on how to increase the number of public schools, clinics and public recreational facilities?

Population has drastically increased in the past five years. We need to look at the current education infrastructure and have a hybrid system of building a new primary school in the area. We need to revive the existing park and ensure that it is rehabilitated and secure for public use.

The clinic operating hours will be increased with adequate security. Consideration should be made to have another public health institution built to ease the burden on the current one and possibly consider increasing the capacity of the current institution.

We would need to review our Integrated Development Plan (IDP). We would partner with the community to reprioritise the IDP according to the urgent needs of the community. We would further introduce business partnerships in this process as we have a very large business community in Midrand.

Service delivery, including public school facilities, are necessary matters that need urgent attention. Since they fall within the provincial government competency, working with councillor committee members responsible for education would prioritise this matter and consider the availability of land for this purpose.

Q: Traffic congestion is a problem in Midrand. Will robots and lanes be added on such roads?

Population growth and an increase of housing developments need thorough consideration. Harry Gaulun Road is used as a regular and alternative route to main roads. Currently, the IDP does not have any expansion plan for this road, this is a review and reprioritisation matter required in our area.

Read: Local municipality candidate answers the community’s questions

There is a need to consider increasing lanes and assisting with a robot on Norfolk Road. This will ease the congestion. Public transport and routes for Gautrain buses [also need to be considered].

Q: The crime rate is increasing. What are your suggestions to curb this trend?

There is an increase in both petty crimes and drug-related crimes in the area. This requires an integrated approach where there is a collaboration with the Community Police Forum, police, security companies and residents’ associations in addressing these ills.

There is a need for focused deterrence methods to create proactive crime prevention awareness in our ward. The City of Johannesburg has introduced Joburg 10 Plus with the idea of intensifying ward-based law enforcement, getting an integrated structure of public safety to help police the ward more effectively.

My suggestion is to increase the reach of this partnership by ensuring that communities are informed about crime prevention operations in their areas. We further need to build more partnerships with community structures that are working on crime prevention in areas within Midrand.

We need Street Watch Committees that would ensure that residents living in the same streets have co-ordinated activities to prevent crime. These may include street patrols, know your neighbour initiatives, Domestic Watch and other initiatives that community can drive and we support.

There is a need to increase lighting systems in many areas. We also need to ensure that social crime prevention such as drug awareness campaigns through joint collaboration with the forums. We need to ensure that schools and recreational mechanism are properly communicated and the impact thereof is felt.

Q: Midrand is seemingly plagued by potholes and dysfunctional streetlights. What is your solution for this?

Our solution is to deal with factors that contribute to this challenge. Firstly, we can’t only repair potholes as a temporary solution. Secondly, there is a need to develop a plan to resurface the roads with durable quality materials to avoid the re-occurrence of this problem.

For example, roads under pressure like Harry Galaun Street and Le Roux Avenue need a proper maintenance schedule and resurfacing plan. This would also require a review of the IDP to ensure that we reprioritise key needs of the community, and road rehabilitation should be one of them.

Read: EFF weighs in on Midrand’s challenges

We will also impress upon all relevant stakeholders to ensure compliance with bylaws. For instance, the construction companies and developers within the city will need to have a proper plan to ensure that roads are rehabilitated with little inconvenience to road users. The main development of houses and other properties in the area will have to be complemented by road infrastructure.

Q: How would you tackle the common occurrence of burst sewerage and water pipes?

This issue is part of the challenge of the growing urban setting. We need to review our current infrastructure capacity against the developments and growth within Midrand. The number of business and residential developments give a good reason to review overall infrastructure plans for the area.

The current incidents of sewage blockages are not only bad for our environment, but they are a health hazard and we, once again, need to ensure that communities are partnering with us by reporting all these incidents and using agreed service standards with Joburg Water to ensure that these incidents are responded to and fixed within agreed standards.

We need to ensure that our IDP reflects these challenges and we plan for necessary upgrades, where it is required. The other important element that needs management, is ensuring service providers working in our area follow correct prevention processes in the cause of pipe damages. In the past years, most of the damages to pipes were caused by construction works and this is avoidable.

My plan would be to educate the community.

An informed community makes a great partner with government and service delivery for a better community.

In the ANC we say ‘together we can do more’ and this is our approach in sustainable solutions to service delivery in Midrand.

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