ANC blames Tshwane metro for poor service delivery
The lawlessness and unitedness prevailing in the capital city are a cause for concern, the ANC says.
ANC members marched to the Tshwane metro offices in the inner city on Tuesday, demanding that the metro should provide better service delivery to the residents of the capital city.
“The ANC in the inner city is concerned about the deterioration of the city,” ANC intercity coordinator Khaya Daki said, reading the memorandum of demands outside the metro’s offices.
The protesters had also marched from the Union Buildings.
Daki said the lawlessness and untidiness prevailing in the capital city were the cause for concern.
“The metro’s failure to enforce bylaws and provide proper cleaning services in the city are at the centre of the problem,” he said.
According to Daki, the metro’s inability to implement bylaws allowed criminals to practice illegal activities freely.
He said his party had noticed that drug dealing, human trafficking and hijacking of the municipal buildings were thriving in Tshwane.
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He slammed what he described as the unnecessary delay in the issuing of business permits to informal traders.
“Issuing of business permits to informal business owners is taking too long and as a result the informal sector is becoming illegal itself.”
He said metro’s failure to manage informal traders had created “havoc” as it promoted a situation where new informal traders set up their businesses anywhere they wished.
“The city is also very dirty. We are worried about the cleaning and maintenance of the city’s infrastructure. The metro has also failed to collect waste in areas such as Mamelodi.”
He said city parks were dirty, water was leaking “all over the city”, waste was not being collected in some parts of the city and the old buildings of the metro were deteriorating.
“We demand that the city must attend to these issues as a matter of urgency.”
He said the metro’s failure to manage its buildings had led to people with “bad motives” to do as they wished to the city’s infrastructure.
Daki also lamented the shortage of public parking space in the city.
He said the metro seemed to rake in thousands of rands from its “controversial vehicle towing practice”.
“The city doesn’t have enough public parking. As a result, community members are struggling to find parking in the centre.”
He said lack of parking prompted motorists to park in spaces not dedicated for parking.
Such practice, he said, led to the Tshwane metro police towing cars away from city streets and motorists having to pay hefty fees to have them released from the compound.
“Our cars are towed every day, and we are paying a lot of money to have them released.”
Protesters gave the metro 14 days to respond to their demands.
MMC for community safety and emergency services Karen Meyer received the memorandum on behalf of Tshwane mayor Randall Williams and assured protesters that they would respond to their demands within 14 days.
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