To: The Mayor, Members of the Mayoral Committees, Councillors and the Municipal Manager of the Executive Management Team of the City of Ekurhuleni (COE). 

CC:

1.     The MEC – COGTA Gauteng Provincial Government
2.     The Premier – Gauteng Provincial Government
3.     The Minister – COGTA 

Dear Sir / Madam,

We as the residents of Alberton, Germiston and surrounding areas are voicing our protest at the lack of service delivery from the COE. The current political instability in council is untenable with infighting which has exacerbated poor services delivery as the focus is on the “politics” rather than the services delivery to the ratepayer.

Living in COE is challenging enough within the towns of Alberton, Germiston and the related suburbs which have degraded to such an extent that one cannot fathom how once vibrant Inner Cities and neighbourhoods have fallen into crime and grime.

Bylaw enforcement is non-existent in suburbs with informal trading mushrooming in suburbs, increased vagrancy, drug trafficking, and increasing burglaries which has substantially reduced the value of our lifelong assets our homes and commercial properties.

We are beset with setbacks on a daily basis, plagued with poor administration and incorrect billing of lights and water bills, as well as increasing rates and taxes while our properties are depreciating because of the decrepit state of suburbs from asphalt roads which have fallen into a state of complete disrepair as well as raw sewerage running down our roads into the stormwater systems.

Our lives are impacted by the lack of poor service delivery and the lack of bylaws enforcement with “ubuntu” and “Batho Pele” non-existent.

We are herewith out of exasperation demanding an Implementation Plan within 60 days from date of receipt  to stop the city decay with timelines for your immediate action, in fixing, reparation and or maintaining  in the following key domains;

City planning.

1. The strain on water, sewerage, stormwater, road & electricity infrastructure caused by illegal or unplanned businesses, connections and multiple-tenant buildings.
2. Submission and turnaround times of Town planning applications where, if a bribe is refused, it takes years for approval.
3. Illegal building and construction in suburbs

Energy.

1. Extended power outages related to the poor repairs and maintenance at substations as well as cable theft.  This is despite multiple contractors being appointed by the COE to protect these assets such as cable theft and maintenance on substations.
2. This includes zero preventative maintenance and inadequate repairs of traffic and streetlights. We have streetlights not operative for months on end contributing to crime.

Finance.

1. 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.

Roads and storm water.

1. Complete lack of road infrastructure repair & maintenance by COE. Storm water drains are blocked, road & pavement reinstatement's not done, potholes not repaired and if repaired not done to standard as they reopen within days.

Waste management.

1. The continual burning of hazardous materials and illegal dumping, even at our legal dumping sites.

Water and sanitation.

1. Ongoing water outages because of inadequate, aging & collapsing water infrastructure, made worse by loadshedding and power outages.
2. Sewerage services where City plumbers expect remuneration for unblocking drains.

Customer relations Management.

1. We as residents and taxpayers continually complain, get reference numbers, and there is no follow up or reference numbers closed with no repair or assistance provided.

Ekurhuleni Metro Police Department.

1. The strain on water, sewerage, stormwater, road & electricity infrastructure caused by the complete lack of enforcement of bylaws regarding illegal businesses, connections, vendors, and multiple-tenant buildings.
2. Lack of security of key infrastructure resulting in theft and vandalism, causing power & water outage despite contractors who are paid millions of rands to protect infrastructure. This borders on corruption, fraud and/or incompetence.
3. There is zero bylaw enforcement, enabling the proliferation of illegal activities, such as the continual burning of hazardous materials and illegal dumping and informal traders setting up wherever they wish.
4. Complete lack of visible policing and patrolling of our suburbs by Metro Police resulting in an exponential increase in violent crime, and the proliferation of illegal activities such as the selling of drugs outside of secondary schools.

Environment resource management.

1. The strain on water, sewerage, stormwater, road & electricity infrastructure caused by illegal vendors.

Sports, recreation, Arts, and culture.

1. Cemeteries that are overgrown and no pathway for cars such as Primrose and Kromvlei.

Disaster & Emergency Management Services.

1. A fire department where equipment tenders do not have basic equipment. How is it that a fire in Meyersdal is responded to by a vehicle from Tokoza. We were told no tender equipment was available at Alberton which is 4 minutes away as they are in for maintenance for months?  What about the 1st responder times to prevent the loss of assets and life.
2. The Fire services lack basic tools like chainsaws to remove fallen debris during storms.

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. We require an urgent meeting with the Mayor and Municipal Manager to provide an action plan with target dates.

We are following due process as the Alberton Ratepayers Action Group and if no satisfactory response to our petition and an immediate action plan is tabled on how the COE will initiate a turnaround plan on the items tabled above we will sadly and unfortunately be forced to use other measures to force compliance of basic service delivery by the COE which will sadly have a severe fiscal impact to the COE and exacerbate its current financial crisis.

Thanking you

 

 

 

 

Sulieman A Patel

Alberton Ratepayers Action Group (ARAG)

Acting Chair - Sulieman A Patel - 0825583515 suliemanp@hotmail.co.za
Acting Secretary - Chareen - 0836320671 -
Acting Co: Willem Herholdt - 0828210654 willemaustralis@hotmail.com

Lebo Lekotoko - 0837098794 - lebzaq.ll@gmail.com

Teboho Taunyane - 0832006792 - samboteboho@gmail.com
Jurie Olckers - 0727722561 - jurie@sisandile.co.za
Samantha Testa - 0732225873 -