We've had Enough!

The residents and ratepayers of Ward 34 have expressed their frustration with their local councillor, Bobby Maharaj. There are several reasons for their dissatisfaction, including:

Lack of performance:

The councillor has not engaged with the residents and ratepayers of the Ward and has generally displayed arrogance. This has negatively impacted the quality of life for those in the area.

Incompetence:

The councillor has shown incompetence in his role by marginalizing residents and ratepayers in the Ward and admittedly having poor communication skills. 

Lack of transparency:

The councillor is non-transparent and his actions have been viewed as malafide. He is unable to explain the Ward's financial budgets and service delivery plans to residents, and his handling of finances (such as the distribution of Senior Citizens Christmas Vouchers) has been deceptive.

Failure to address complaints:

There are numerous complaints from residents about issues such as drainage problems, water leaks, blockages and overflowing sewers, illegal connections to the electrical grid, and long periods of water supply interruptions due to poor infrastructure or inferior repair work. The councillor has failed to keep track of these faults or follow up on them. When asked for evidence of escalation, he ignores the community at large and answers a select few of his political party allies. He has also stated that there should not be the expectation that faults logged with the Municipality will be treated with urgency.

Disrespectful behavior:

The councillor has a track record of humiliating and disrespecting senior citizens and residents seeking help at his office by shouting at them and being arrogant towards them. He has verbally abused women and picked fights with residents who have called him out on his failures in public.

Disrespect for the Ward Committee: 

The democratically elected Ward Committee has been treated with disdain by the councillor. He refuses to work with them and ignores their advice and resolutions. He treats them as non-entities. This has directly resulted in the resignation of some of the Ward Committee members who were subjected to his unacceptable behaviour.

Additionally, the councillor has not complied with the Handbook for Municipal Councillors and has breached many of its requirements, such as holding regular public meetings and providing minutes and feedback of previous public meetings upon request.

The newly formed Ward 34 Residents & Ratepayers Association has successfully attended to many matters. It has established a service delivery and faults database which tracks each fault's reference number and current status. This was done in one month while the councillor has failed to initiate any system/s in six years.

For the above reasons, the Residents and Ratepayers of Ward 34 demand that the councillor be immediately removed.

We've had enough!