Community will not budge on demands

Angry community members handed over demands to City officials on Wednesday (25 June). The are unhappy about the way in which a mine dump next to their suburb is being rehabilitated.

The programme consists of three phases and attempts to address issues of air pollution and storm-water erosion caused by the abandoned mine. City Parks and the Johannesburg Environment and Infrastructure Department awarded a tender to Tshenolo Resources with the understanding that the community of Davidsonville would benefit with regard to job creation.

The community demands that the Community Liaison Officer Theo Visagie be removed; that they receive a daily wage of R150 instead of the R120 currently being offered; that any subcontractors employed be from the Davidsonville community; that someone from the community be appointed Health and Safety Officer; and that the City reconsiders the stipulation that 63 per cent of the workforce be female. They also demand more jobs, with special emphasis on jobs for the youth.

Initially Daniel Masemola from the Environment and Infrastructure Department addressed the crowd, explaining that the tender process and the subsequent appointment of Visagie was above board. After the crowd became unruly, it was decided that they should elect four people to represent them and further discussions would take place in a more controlled environment.

In the meeting it was established that the gazetted amount for work done on an Extensive Public Works Programme (EPWP) is R70 a day, and that the contractor Sven Milton already had made a concession by moving the wage total from R80 to R120. He added that he could not afford to pay R150 unless he hired less people. Bobby Hunsley, a community representative made the observation that the mine dust was harmful and that asking people to risk their health for anything less than R150 a day was unethical.

Reggie Mokalapa of City Parks established that the ward councillor and the ward committee were responsible for the appointment of Visagie and no-one in the room had the power or mandate to fire him.

Here is a summary of preliminary decisions that were made:

• 50 jobs will be available per phase.

• A deadlock has been reached over Visagie and Stuurman. The City says it has no mandate to remove them and that the councillor has to be involved.

• The contractor is willing to pay R120 per day.

• Subcontractors have to employ an additional 32 people per phase.

• Security staff will be from the community.

• Instead of 63 per cent woman, 20 per cent woman will be used owing to the hard nature of the labour.

Councillor and community leader hits back — 26 June

Two of the parties in the mine dump rehabilitation debacle who came under the harshest criticism defended themselves yesterday (24 June).

ANC community leader Laetitia Stuurman (also Ward Committee member for Environmental and Infrastructure Affairs as well as chairperson for the sub-committee of Mining and Environmental Legal Affairs) and DA Ward Councillor Gert Niemand came under fire from the faction of unemployed residents and their heads have been demanded on a plate.

Stuurman has had vicious personal attacks launched against her by her critics and political enemies but she is not backing down.

“They attack me because they are jealous of my happiness and my success. The issue of the mine dump rehabilitation is being used for political reasons and now they try to get to me through personal attacks,” says Stuurman.

“As far as the Community Liaison Officer (CLO) is concerned the faction is way out of line. He is a respected member of the community, church and volunteers for the Community Workers Programme (CWP). Why should he have refrained from applying for the CLO position? He had as much right as the next person to apply and has been appointed after going through the process,” says Stuurman.

Stuurman denies claims that the community was not involved.

“We had numerous meetings of every kind and the community was just not interested in engaging. As recent as two weeks ago we had a public meeting. We handed out 1 200 notices and less than 100 people attended. This shows the community is not interested and not the other way around,” she says.

“Yes we need jobs in Davidsonville but what are the people doing to try and better their education to get jobs? The community just wants to sit back and get everything handed to them,” says Stuurman.

“I have dedicated my life to Davidsonville, sometimes to my own disadvantage, so I think that speaks louder than all these personal attacks against me. God has been good to me. That is all I need to say.”

Niemand also painted a different picture to the faction’s version.

“We have been fighting for this project since 2006. Now that it finally has come to light this faction wants to sabotage it due to their shortsightedness and their desire for personal gain,” says Niemand.

“We have followed the correct processes to the letter. Meetings were held, we advertised in the newspapers and everything else that ensured it to be correct and above board.

“The allegations are stripped of any truth. What the community needs to realise is that this project’s goal is to clean up the environment for the community; to alleviate the nuisance of the dust and all the health risks it brings. It is not a job-creation project. Yes, of course jobs will be created but that is not the main aim.

“I always have supported the idea that the community must benefit from the project through the jobs that are created but it is unreasonable of the community to expect 200 jobs when the project only provides for say 40 jobs. The contractor also has gone out of his way with meeting their demands. He has been willing to pay R120 instead of the initial R80. This is R20 more than wat is legally required,” says Niemand.

“Furthermore we have made the criteria for the CLO position as simple and easy as possible. You have to have passed Grade 11, be able to read and write English, have leadership qualities and live in Ward 71.

“The contractor does not have to use local labour or local subcontractors but again he has gone as far as saying he is willing to help them pay their employees initially until the subcontractors receive their first payment and he even is willing to train subcontractors in cases where they fall short of his requirements.

“What the community must realise is that this is a highly technical project and you need to be able to do what is asked. It also is ridiculous to say that it could be made more labour intensive by removing machines from the project. You can not move a 10 000 cubic metre mine dump manually with spades. I think this faction is unreasonable,” says Niemand.

“The community must realise the true aim of the project, which is the betterment of their quality of life, otherwise they face the possibility that the project might be abandoned. Then they will have to live in these conditions caused by the mine dump for another three years.”

Role players’ no show for Davidsonville meeting — 25 June

Relationships between a faction of the Davidsonville community and role players in a mine dump rehabilitation project are turning sour after a no-show for a meeting on 24 June.

The faction’s ‘peaceful’ protest was met with rubber bullets from the Metro Police the day before at the site of the rehabilitation project. According to one of the faction’s leaders, Bobby Hunsley it was agreed that representatives of the City of Johannesburg (CoJ), Laetititia Stuurman (ANC community leader), Gert Niemand (DA Councillor for Ward 71) and the contractor would have met with them at the site on 24 June to try and resolve the deadlock.

The faction of 100 plus unemployed Davidsonville residents is unhappy with the process the CoJ followed with the appointment of a contractor whom they feel will not use enough local labour. It is alleged that the contractor will use only 40 local labourers but the faction feels that the project can be made more labour intensive. They also fear that the contractors will subcontract work to outside contractors who will bring their own labour from outside.

Except for the unhappy residents the other role players did not pitch up for the meeting where they were supposed to hand over a memorandum.

The memorandum demands the following:

• A better community, lifestyle, education, future through job creation

• Transparency and the end of nepotism and favouritism during the project/s processes. The disgruntled group is insinuating that the appointment of the Community Liaison Officer (CLO) came about due to family connections and they also have accused the contractor of not being transparent with information relating to the costs of the project that the community has asked for. Hunsley also said that he believed the project would cost between R54 million and R154 million but that the beneficiaries are being hidden from the community. They have asked for the removal of the CLO

• That Stuurman be withdrawn from this project, saying she is not a roll model, lacks leadership qualities, needs coaching and has no vision

• That they will remove Niemand as councillor if he does not create jobs but projects only. “We have voted him in and we will remove him, ” says Hunsley. According to the memorandum the group will be piloting a petition that calls for a referendum to vote on Niemand’s future.

“Drugs and crime will keep on increasing in the community if the majority stays unemployed. Jobs will give our people back their dignity,” says Hunsley.

“The system has turned the people of Davidsonville into criminals,” he concluded on a dour note.

JMPD allegedly shoots at peaceful protestors — 23 June

A peaceful protest metres away from the Metro Police’s training centre in Ethel Street went awry on 23 June when the Metro Police allegedly shot rubber bullets at the crowd.

According to one of the leaders of the protest, Andrew Stride the crowd was unarmed and only were chanting their demands when, without warning, Metro Police officers got out of their vehicles and shot rubber bullets at them.

The protestors are unhappy about the way the City of Johannesburg and one of its contractors intend executing a court order to rehabilitate the mine dumps next to Davidsonville to minimise the health risk it poses. The contractor plans to use only 40 members of the community as labourers whereas the hundred or so protestors feel that the project should be made more labour intensive to alleviate the unemployment problem in Davidsonville. They also are unhappy with the fact that the contractor plans to sub-contact work to contractors from outside the community, which they fear will bring in their own labourers.

Stride and other leaders also say they are unhappy with Councillor Gert Niemand who they say fled the scene and did not represent them.

Not far from the scene was a sinister warning to the protestors in the form of a dead dog that had a message attached to its body. The protestors say that the dog was killed by one of the labourers who works for the contractor on site.

Another leader of the protestors, Sean Daniels, also explains that the group is not happy with the initial offer of R80 per day and that they demand at least R150 per day for their labour. He says the contractors are not transparent with their bill of quantities.

All role-players were to meet at the same location the following morning, hoping to bring an end to the deadlock.

“If they do not meet our demands no work will be done here,” warns Joseph Malinga, one of the protestors.

The record awaits comment from Councillor Gert Niemand and JMPD spokesperson Wayne Minnaar.