Ward 71 councillor, Rene Benjamin, has responded to the allegations made by the Davidsonville community that she has been absent for most of her term and has failed to consult with or involve community members in important Integrated Development Plan meetings.
In her reply, Rene said, “All I can say is that the person making that statement must clearly not attend meetings, as I have had more than 12 meetings in Davidsonville alone in the slightly more than two years I have been councillor. There should be at least four meetings per year.”
With regard to the IDP meetings, she said these meetings are not run by the councillor, but by the Speaker’s office and the executive of the city. She reiterated that the councillor’s role is legislative and oversight only.
The community also claimed that prior to the elections, promises were made of electricity bill write-offs in exchange for new electricity meters, so residents could pay and maintain their bills. Instead, an audit of bridged meters was conducted and residents had their electricity supply cut off.
According to the councillor, no promises were made concerning scrapping of debt.
“It is very sad that people try to include politics in issues that are clearly not political. No promises were made with regard to write-offs of municipal arrears. What actually happened is that over 460 write-off applications from residents (not all from Davidsonville) were handed in to Group Finance at Thuso House over a year and a half ago, when the previous MMC of Finance was still in office,” she explained.
Rene also stated that a public meeting was held with Davidsonville residents in 2018 and a representative from the Finance Department explained to the community that this is a process and that as it is finance and involves the writing-off of a very large sum of money, there are policies to follow. Time frames were never given, as it was impossible to do so.
“The current status is that the report from Group Finance has been approved and is to be served before Council, where it will have to be approved before Group Finance will be able to begin the application and subsequent write-off process. The MMC for Finance has issued a letter to the residents stating and confirming the status of the write-off process,” she added.
“The audit on the bridged meters, which has absolutely nothing to do with the write-off process, is a project undertaken by City Power, again proving that the writer is making assumptions. It needs to be made clear that City Power is doing this throughout the city and not just in Davidsonville. It must also be clarified that City Power and Group Finance are not the same thing and that this audit falls under City Power,” said Rene.
The issue of RDP housing and title deeds was also raised by the residents of Davidsonville.
Rene said the housing issue is the responsibility of the Department of Housing. She explained that the RDP housing applications also go through Gauteng Housing, which processes applications and then decides whether to provide subsidies or not. The local office is just the implementation office.
“The Region C Housing Department met with residents earlier this year and got them to reapply for subsidies as there was no feedback from Gauteng on their applications. This applies to the 1996/ 1997 applicants only. I requested a meeting with the Region C office over a week ago, and once we finalise the date, we will discuss a number of housing issues pertaining to the ward,” she said.
Rene continued, saying, “The Housing Department does not seem to have any outstanding title deeds, with the exception of a few for Sectional Title properties. The leadership of Davidsonville was presented with a list of these, and a list of residents who needed to sign an acknowledgement of purchase was issued to them by Mr Desmond Kemp from the Department. A request was sent directly to the MMC for copies of title deeds to be issued to those residents who have indicated that they do not have one. This is a process that requires the Deeds Office to produce these copies. The time frame is difficult to predict, as there is no way to determine how long this will take. The acting chairperson of Housing (Section 79) is kindly assisting me with this process.”
The subject of parks was also brought up by the community, which claims that there are no proper parks or recreational facilities, and children are thus forced to play in dangerous fields.
Rene listed a couple of child-friendly spots in Davidsonville, among them a park or recreational area near the dam. She said there is (or was) some play equipment in the park, although some had gone missing as is the case at all parks, which often get vandalised.
“In a meeting held with the leadership of Davidsonville in February, which was attended by a representative of the Department of Sports and Recreation, the issue was raised. Davidsonville has a swimming pool, the area in Fearick Street is usable to play on, although it most certainly would require equipment. Children can also use the practice grounds at the stadium and the tennis courts. The rest of the ward has an overgrown and extremely cracked tennis court and netball grounds that are not in a safe, usable state. This matter has been the subject of a long, continuous effort to get the Department to rehabilitate these grounds,” she added.
The community also said it feels side-lined in respect of council-based projects and programmes, as well as access to council bursary programmes.
Rene advised that there is a member of staff who sits at the Clinic in Davidsonville who is designated to assist residents to register for the ESP programme. This includes adding the details of the unemployed youth to the system which is used to identify and assist with skills training programmes. However, if they are not on the database, there is no way to know they are unemployed.
The councillor concluded by saying she had conducted a youth meeting in March, which was attended by the Opportunity Centre Manager from Region C, who explained the benefits of the centre, what can be done for them, and the facilities that can be used.
“I have gone so far as to post job opportunities on the youth group that was created after the meeting, and scanned the submitted CVs and returned them to the applicants, so that they would have an electronic copy available on their phones. This being said, it is not the councillor’s responsibility to find work for people. In addition, talks have been held with various NGOs and the Department of Social Development about running skills development programmes for the youth who are unemployed,” Rene explained.
