Councillor Mongameli Mnyameni chats about his ward

THE COURIER brings you a series of articles about ward councillors and what they perceive as their achievements since their election. This week the COURIER chats to Ward 124 councillor.

What have you achieved since your appointment?

There is a lot of achievements but firstly I want to state that Ward 124 residents have access to speak to me about anything that they need changed or introduced in the ward. I am available to everyone be it young or old, prominent business individuals or ordinary citizens. So being available for the people you are serving is the first achievement for me.

I have called about 13 community meetings since my appointment addressing service delivery and social ills. As a councillor I can only have three meetings per term but I want to always be connected to my community.

What can you do or what can’t you do for the community?

The only thing that I can do is to escalate the issues of the residents to the relevant people in the municipality.

Residents should know that when there is a problem like at a substation for instance, as a councillor I am not qualified to go and fix the problem. City Power personnel must be contacted in that regard. Even when there is a burst sewage pipe, I can’t fix the problem but relevant people must be contacted.

Most of the streets in my ward are dirty and it is not my duty to hire people to clean the streets but the municipal is the one responsible for that. For example, residents in AmaXhosain informal settlement in the inner city wanted to locate themselves illegally in a building called Usindiso but I stopped them in invading the building and I escalated the problem to the MMC of Housing.

What are your challenges?

Some people are misinformed about the duties of a councillor. Firstly, I don’t have a budget to run the ward. Like, recently I was informed about an old age home that was set alight. I wanted to help but I don’t have a budget unless I take money from my own pocket. None of the local councillors has a budget to run their wards.

Regarding Booysens informal settlement, what measures have you taken to assist those people with their numerous complaints?

There is a lot of engagement that took place between me and the people of the settlement. The people invaded that land illegally and that place is too small for development. Illegal electrical connections are a fire hazard all over the settlement. I have met with Prasa and Transnet who owns the place. So, I have engaged with Prasa, Transnet and the previous MMC for Housing Mzobanzi Ntuli. The previous MMC told me that there will be a development for RDP houses, but, I was also told that it will take some time as there still needs to be a budget.

I have also engaged with the present MMC for Housing, Meshack van Wykand. He has agreed to meet with me and discuss RDP houses for Booysens people. Once we have had our discussion I will give feedback to the COURIER.

I also required temporary taps for the settlement which will enable them to distinguish fires in case of shack fires and this also gives the settlement easy access to water.

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