Good day Mayor Herman Mashaba. I received a call from your office two days after I sent this e-mail. An official told me that someone from your office would contact me with regard to these issues but to date no-one has contacted me.
The issue of the land invasion has been solved with all the shacks put up there eventually being removed. If Metro Police had removed the few initial pole structures and sink sheets when they started putting them up, it would not have ended up with hundreds of shacks going up and the cost to remove them.
I had for the past 18 months been constantly putting through reports that people were coming down every Saturday from the Hamberg station to the Rugby club and were being sold stands by a person there. Metro Police were sent out there on a number of occasions and the housing department was advised. Why were these sellers not identified and action taken against them?
As action started, councillor Caleb Finn, from Ward 70 did an outstanding job to see the process through. As the above has been resolved there is no need for comment. It is for information.
This, reporting of the selling of stands issue, I did as a community leader as well as a Joburg Ward Committee member while it was still functioning.
The Joburg Ward committees have not yet been established and we as elected members have still not been advised of what is going to happen with the ward committees.
As we have seen around the world, voters’ views can never be ignored. This will be to the peril of political parties and candidates. When we have to try and sort out right from wrong, why do we have to involve the press to get action?
Surely the establishment of ward committees helps the councillor and Joburg Council with whatever problems crop up in the various wards? If there is a crisis here, as with the Cape storms and Knysna fires, it would certainly be necessary to have community involvement via elected members.
