Sulaiman Sathar outlines service delivery priorities for Ward 124

1. What are the three biggest challenges currently facing your ward, and how will you address them?

Potholes, illegal dumping, and faulty streetlights affect our community daily. I will report these issues, escalate them when necessary, monitor progress, and engage the relevant municipal structures to ensure responsible entities provide lasting solutions.

2. How will you improve basic service delivery such as water, electricity, refuse removal and road maintenance?

I want to create a ward service delivery platform. This platform will let me track progress, report new problems, and help with existing ones. Create feedback and announcements.

3. What specific plans do you have to improve community safety and reduce crime in the ward?

As a councillor, I may not be directly involved in policing operations, but I can champion practical municipal interventions that help create safer, cleaner, and more secure communities, while advocating for the services and infrastructure that help residents feel safe and supported.

4. How will you ensure that residents are kept informed and involved in decisions affecting the community?

I will promote transparency through a community dashboard that tracks reported issues, progress, resolutions, and escalations. Monthly ward reports will also give residents clear updates on service delivery performance, challenges, and outstanding matters that need attention.

5. What will you do to support local businesses, informal traders and job creation in the ward?

To address unemployment, I will focus on understanding the challenges facing job seekers and connecting residents with existing city portfolio programmes, training opportunities, and resources that can improve livelihoods and create pathways to employment.

6. How will you improve conditions in informal settlements and underserved areas within the ward?

My role is to ensure community concerns reach the appropriate sphere of government, engage the city on development plans for all settlements, and advocate for fair, inclusive, and sustainable service delivery across the ward.

7. What is your plan to address infrastructure problems such as potholes, sewage spills, streetlights and illegal dumping?

As a councillor, my role is to identify and escalate community concerns to the relevant municipal departments and entities responsible for maintaining and managing public infrastructure. I will advocate for accountability, monitor progress, and ensure that service delivery commitments are acted upon.

Meaningful progress happens when the City and the community work together, with residents actively highlighting issues and supporting solutions.

8. How will you ensure municipal funds allocated to the ward are spent transparently and effectively?

A Ward Councillor does not directly control or allocate municipal budgets. Our role is to oversee implementation, monitor how public funds are used, and hold the relevant City departments and entities accountable for service-delivery commitments.

9. What programmes or initiatives would you introduce for young people, women and vulnerable residents in the community?

I will champion opportunities for our youth, support programmes that uplift communities, advocate for stronger action against gender-based violence, and work with residents, law enforcement, and community structures to improve safety, accountability, and security throughout our ward.

10. If elected, how will residents be able to hold you accountable and measure your progress over the next five years?

I believe in accountable leadership. To ensure commitments translate into action, I will maintain a public register of commitments and resolutions that tracks reported issues, responsible authorities, agreed actions, and outcomes.

This will give residents a transparent way to monitor progress and hold service-delivery stakeholders accountable.

Caxton Local Media invited Johannesburg mayoral candidates, as confirmed at the time of publication, to participate in a question-and-answer interview, giving voters a chance to learn more about their plans, priorities, and hopes for the city ahead of the Local Government Elections on November 4. c

The views expressed in these questionnaires are those of the respective candidates and do not represent the views of Caxton Local Media or any of its publications.

The answers are intended solely to provide voters with information about the candidates contesting the election and to help them make informed choices at the polls.