Houses and power to his residents

Ward 25 Councillor, Mqapheleni Ngcobo, spoke to the Newcastle Advertiser about the service delivery programmes he has facilitated in his ward and some of the challenges faced. A councillor’s duty is to manage the supplying of service delivery to the community.

Housing project:

Cllr Ngcobo first highlighted a housing project he had facilitated, and outlined its high points.
“In 2011, in collaboration with the Department of Human Settlement, we had 1205 housing units built in the Siyahlala-la area, for the informal settlement shack dwellers.
These houses are now occupied by the community. This housing project was estimated at R57-million for the construction of the units, under the budget of the municipality,” he said.

Water project:

“In 2013, under the municipality budget, we had the water reservoir installed to supply water to the Siyahlala-la community.”

Electricity project:

“We had the electricity sub-station constructed in 2015, to provide electricity to the newly built houses. In 2012, and we had 2 high mast lights installed at the Siyahlala-la settlement.”

Community project:

“Fairleigh Hall property was bordered with a wire fence which had been vandalised, and sections of it were stolen. In 2014/2015, we had a new fence erected that can’t be cut through by criminals.”
Cllr Ngcobo added that in 2015, sport change rooms were built behind Fairleigh Hall, at an estimated cost of R40 000.
“From 2012, on David Street at Fairleigh, there were four houses with wall cracks that I facilitated in being renovated, at the rate of one house per year. In 2015, we had Fairleigh Flats renovated. We re-painted the flats and and put tiles on the floors. That was a project expedited with the help of the Department of Human Settlements.”

Roads project:

“In 2016, we had a roads upgrading project, and working together with the municipality technical team, all roads in the Siyahlala-la area were tarred.”

Challenges:

“I understand people are saying I do not deliver but we have had councillors from 1996, and you didn’t see much change in informal settlements. Everyone has an expectation of how things should be done and when things should be done, but that will never be the case because each project takes time. There are people who registered to get houses but they were put on the waiting list at the municipality, so when that person sees someone else getting a house, they get mad. Remember, it is all a process.”

“Also, there are people who previously didn’t qualify to get houses due to specific requirements at Human Settlements, but we asked the Department of the Province for land to build new houses, but that is still a long process that will take a little time.”

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