Although 115 of the metro’s 118 fleet vehicles have been deployed across various departments, Pretoria east residents say they have seen very little evidence of service delivery.

The vehicles were procured during the current financial year and include bakkies, water tankers, passenger vehicles, road-marking trucks, and street sweepers intended to support critical municipal functions such as infrastructure maintenance, water provision, road marking, and street cleaning.

Residents say persistent service delivery issues remain unresolved.

Annie Clarke said she has not noticed any significant improvement in her area.

“I have not seen any difference in service delivery response. Things are still the same,” said Clarke.

She pointed to streetlights along Jacobson Drive that have been out of order for an extended period.

“The only thing I am seeing is residents taking matters into their own hands,” she said.

Another resident, Carina Gauché, said infrastructure-related problems continue to frustrate residents.

She recalled a cable fault near Menlo Park that she believes took too long to repair.

“There was a cable that broke in front of the law school in Menlo Park and it took them very long to fix that,” she said.

Gauché also raised concerns about an ongoing water leak in Hazelwood that is still running.

She added that the leak, located near 20th Street in Hazelwood, has continued for at least two months, despite repeated reports and escalations.

“The whole area is sopping wet and the water is streaming down the street into the drain. It has been at least two months.

“I’ve reported it and escalated it, but nothing has been done about it,” she said.

Ward 42 councillor Shane Maas said he has not yet seen a significant improvement in certain services that would benefit from the additional fleet.

“In terms of the water tankers, there hasn’t been a need for me to utilise them. Fortunately, during the last round of water maintenance, the reservoirs held up before any outages were felt, so there was no requirement for the water tankers to be utilised,” said Maas.

He added that improvements to streetlight repairs remain limited.

“In terms of cherry pickers and the streetlights, I haven’t seen an improvement. I’ve noticed one or two streets come on, but generally I haven’t really seen it. My own streetlight has been off for the last year,” he said.

Despite the criticism, MMC for Corporate and Shared Services Flora Monama said the metro is committed to improving service delivery and strengthening municipal operations.

“The deployment of these vehicles strengthens our ability to respond to community needs while ensuring that municipal resources are utilised efficiently and responsibly.

“We remain committed to maintaining sound governance and delivering value for money to the residents of Tshwane,” said Monama.

She said the additional vehicles will improve operational capacity and support the efficient delivery of municipal services across Tshwane, while measures are also being implemented to improve fleet management, oversight and accountability.

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