To the Mayor of Johannesburg, the Executive Management Team of the City of Johannesburg, our Ward Councillors (Ward 66 and 118), and the Political Parties that make up the coalition of the City of Johannesburg. 

We the residents of: Kensington, Bez Valley, Troyeville, Bertrams, Lorentzville, Dewetshof, Observatory, Judith's Paarl, Cyrildene and Bruma are voicing our protest at the lack of service delivery from the City of Johannesburg Municipality and its various entities.

Every day, our lives are impacted by the lack of service delivery and the lack of bylaws enforcement.

The issues we are demanding to your attention for fixing, maintaining, and managing are:

·         Ongoing power outages related to the repairs at the Observatory & Bellevue substations. The fire at the Observatory substation was because of poor maintenance. The restoration efforts are being made worse by loadshedding & illegal connections by illegal businesses and illegal multi-tenant properties that are allowed to freely operate.

·         Ongoing water outages because of aging & collapsing water infrastructure, made worse by loadshedding, power outages, & strain on water infrastructure by illegal businesses and illegal multi-tenant properties that are allowed to freely operate.

·         Complete lack of road infrastructure repair & maintenance by JRA – storm water drains are blocked, road & pavement reinstatements not done, potholes not repaired.

·         Complete lack of water infrastructure repair & maintenance by Joburg Water – major water leaks not attended to, burst pipes over vast areas, no preventative maintenance.

·         Complete lack of electricity repair & maintenance by City Power – zero preventative maintenance, zero maintenance of existing transmission infrastructure, traffic lights not repaired, streetlights not maintained & repaired.

·         The drain on water, road & electricity infrastructure caused by illegal businesses, illegal vendors and illegal buildings with multiple tenants; together with the complete lack of enforcement of bylaws by JMPD, especially illegal connections, illegal building and illegal dumping. Residents continually complain, get reference numbers, and there is no follow up.

·         Lack of security of key infrastructure resulting in theft and vandalism, causing power & water outages.

·         Continual water and/or electricity billing issues endured by residents with no assistance (from any officials or departments) to deal with such issues, resulting in residents having their water or electricity cut off. 

·         A dual system whereby residents paying rates & taxes and utilities are expected to continue to pay for lack of service delivery, whilst illegal businesses and illegal buildings of multiple tenants are allowed to flourish and put strain on the infrastructure. There is zero bylaw enforcement, enabling the proliferation of illegal activities, such as the continual burning of hazardous materials and illegal dumping.

·         Complete lack of visible policing and patrolling of our suburbs by SAPS resulting in an exponential increase in violent crime, and the proliferation of illegal activities such as the selling of drugs outside of secondary schools.

·         Allowing the use of fireworks at certain times on certain days. This has resulted in excessive use of fireworks causing distress and harm to residents. There should be an outright ban on the use of fireworks, given that the JMPD doesn’t enforce bylaws.

This petition calls for urgent action from the Mayor, Executive Management Team, Ward Councillors, and Political Parties to promptly tackle the pressing issues affecting the daily life and safety of their communities.