Mams residents start off year pleading for better service delivery
Deputy mayor Eugene Modise says residents who cannot afford to pay their debts must register for the indigent programme. Residents will be reviewed on merit and there are documents that they must submit.
As the year begins, Mamelodi residents are already at their wits’ end with Tshwane metro’s service delivery.
Their issues are related to electricity billing processes, as some people remain blocked from even purchasing electricity, as well as unsafe reservoirs, formalisation of informal settlements and title deeds, among others.
On January 8, residents gave the metro a 14-day ultimatum to scrap all their municipal bills and further demanded free registration of new pre-paid meters.
The group of frustrated residents marched from Maseko Shopping Complex to the mini-municipal office in Mamelodi, demanding better service delivery.
They claim that the metro is to be blamed for the electricity woes in the region. Currently, many households are in serious debt, because queries are being ignored about estimates for water and electricity.
Mamelodi South African National Civic Organisation (SANCO) Secretary Joseph Kgatlhe was one of the spearheaders of the march who read the memorandum of demands.
The demands focus on the following matters:
– Local water reservoirs must be safeguarded.
– EPWP programmes to be reinstated.
– Title deeds for old four-roomed houses be issued immediately.
– Credit control and POP policies must be reviewed.
– Debts owed by residential and business properties must be scrapped.
– Flat rate to be implemented.
– Formalisation of informal settlements.
– Free registration for new electricity prepaid meters.
– Money paid for current electricity accounts must not be redirected towards old debts owed to the municipality.
Kgatlhe said: “We have a community that is in debt, not only with the municipality but an increasing unemployment rate also, which makes the asking price for new prepaid meters very impossible for the community to acquire.
“Tshwane metro has forced the community to resort to illegal connections through the city’s illegal blocking of prepaid cards that are supposed to purchase electricity, because of the rent they owed,” he said.
“Tshwane metro further takes money that was supposed to purchase electricity and redirects it to rent that is due. This illegal practice has forced residents to seek alternative measures,” he said.
President of Concerned Residents for Service Delivery in Mamelodi, Oupa Mtshweni, added that the Municipality Systems Act states that the municipality can’t make decisions on issues like budgets without public participation meetings.
Mtshweni said many households are in serious debt and can’t afford to pay, especially the elderly, unemployed and child-headed families.
He said the metro uses estimates to bill residents, and upon making enquiries, residents are compelled to make arrangements for debts they don’t actually have.
“We are here to demand the scrapping of rent debts and a flat rate, and I told municipal officials that I am prepared to pay only R40 per month, and that pensioners must no longer pay rent,” said Mtshweni.
“The municipality doesn’t take action against people squatting in informal settlements, even though they use water and electricity without paying for such services,” he said.
Mamelodi SANCO deputy zonal secretary Thatohatsi Mogale complained about the filthy state of facilities in Mamelodi, including cemeteries.
He said the cemeteries are no longer safe and criminals rob people of their belongings when they visit their loved ones’ graves due to lack of maintenance and security guards.
Deputy mayor Eugene Modise received the memorandum on behalf of the metro.
He said: “The present City of Tshwane government has been in existence for only six weeks and they have already addressed some of the issues which the residents are complaining about, including the scrapping of debts owed to the municipality.
“The majority of the marchers fall within the category of indigents and the problem is they haven’t registered themselves as such,” explained Modise.
“The debts of the indigents will be reviewed on merit and there are documents that they must submit.”
Modise stressed that the much-spoken-about flat rate was unreasonable, as consumption of services determines what one must pay.
He concurred that the 14-day ultimatum to be met was reasonable.
He added metro police and private security guards will be deployed at the Mamelodi reservoir, as the reservoir has been declared a national key point and no illegal water connections will be allowed there anymore.
Kgatlhe added: “We are giving Tshwane metro 14 days to respond and if they don’t, we will come back because this is just the beginning and we will have another repeat of the 1985 Mamelodi massacre as we are not afraid to die”.
He added that those living in squatter camps must also be charged for municipal services, just like those living in formal dwellings are charged for such services.
Also read: Same issues continue in Mamelodi
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