Unhappy residents voice their opinions
During the opening of the National Council of Provinces programme in Soshanguve, many residents expressed their dissatisfaction with the services they were getting.
While many residents from the north-western townships, in particular Soshanguve, Mabopane, Ga-Rankuwa and surrounding areas, cherished the opportunity to rub shoulders with some of parliament’s top officials, the bulk of residents were not happy with the outcome whatsoever.
Several residents complained about the poor work from their ward councillors, while others thought they had not been given enough time to speak during the session.
A large number of residents registered their grievances about their ward councillors, whom they accused of gross negligence or failure to properly attend to their work and duties. Other residents opted to submit petitions to the relevant officials, while yet others voiced their dissatisfaction by displaying placards outside the venue.
The session, which took place at Soshanguve’s Giant Stadium in Block F, West, even attracted residents from several informal settlements in Mamelodi.
Some of the residents from the Donkerhoek informal settlement near the Pienaarspoort train station in Mamelodi attended the programme in the hope of raising the issue of the formalisation of their settlement. They complained about the gross negligence from their ward councillor and the metro at large, which, according to them, often sent police to demolish their shacks. According to one of the residents, Norman Kwinda, the area was still completely underdeveloped and members of the community were often subjected to police brutality. Kwinda told Record that a week ago the metro police invaded their area and fought with residents for no apparent reason. “What we need is for the area to be formalised so that we can have electricity, water, schools and a police station. Many of the people you see here grew up in this area,” he said.
Another resident who attended the NCOP programme at the Giant Stadium told Record that she was happy that their petition had been accepted, but she was unsure as to when government would act on it. “We are just members of the community and only represent our area. We know that the municipality has included us in their revised Integrated Development Plan (IDP), but nothing has been happening there,” she said. The residents showed Record the newly revised IDP documents which, among others, detailed a park, sports facility, water supply and job creation.
Despite the lack of comment from the Ward 100 councillor, Chris Mahlasi, the residents vowed to keep attending the programme until its last day. Mahlasi couldn’t be reached for comment before going to press.
The National Council of Provinces (NCOP) programme to take parliament to the people of Tshwane, which started on Monday, will be concluded on Friday when President Jacob Zuma delivers his annual address to the NCOP about the topic of ‘working together to ensure socio-economic development and advancement of our communities’.
noweto@rekord.co.za
