Woes continue at Presidentia
"What I’ve decided to do is send a strongly-worded letter to the manager of Presidentia and ask her for an appointment,” says Stone
Residents of Presidentia, a municipal housing project with mostly retired residents, have had enough of the reoccurring problems they have to face.
According to Ward Clr Dean Stone and volunteer Petra Verwey, there are 16 empty lots in the complex and people who apply to rent these units keep on being placed on a waiting list.
Additionally, many residents have had broken geysers for up to a year now, despite caretaker, now volunteer, Verwey taking the issue up with the housing department on numerous occasions.
According to Stone, there have been huge mix-ups in the housing department, the manager of this area has resigned.
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“I believe ever since this has taken place, there have been no renovations taking place.
“No geysers, nothing’s being fixed.
“Apparently a previous contractor’s work was signed off and work was never done.
“Basically, its corruption, that’s what it is.
“Petra can raise any problems with the housing department, but nothing is done because of a court case and they can’t use these contractors,” says Stone.
Stone wene on to say Presidentia was not the only complex affected as Molendam, Toekoms, Markville are also plauged by various problems.
The ward councillor says the management structure has also changed, which he has a massive problem with as previously all the problems would be raised with Petra.
Stone went on to say that what the metro has done now is replace the caretakers with volunteers, of which Petra is one.
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“There is a maintenance person who has been employed on a 12-month basis, he is responsible for electrical issues but there is no one who can help with plumbing or fixing of the geysers.
“He has had to work at places like Molendam, where there were no tools, that’s why the gate motor at Molendam is not working.
“What I’ve decided to do is send a strongly-worded letter to the city manager (Imogen Mashazi) and ask her for an appointment.
“We can’t have court cases and stuff like that holding up people’s geysers repairs, that’s not acceptable,” says Stone.
In order to settle the various personal grievances and other issues in this community, Stone has decided to set up a committee so people can vote in a democratic system on what they think should happen, for instance, if someone is stuck with a broken geyser and they can’t bath, they can just ask their next-door neighbour if they can take a bath at their place.
“We need to get these people to talk each other,” says Stone.
A media inquiry has been sent to the metro.
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