Pretoria - Elderly homeowners yesterday marched to Tshwane House to demand that the DA-led administration stop targeting the poor with bills and rates they simply cannot afford.
They also wanted the municipality to start providing services to the townships.
The crowd was divided between those who were able to march from Marabastad to the City of Tshwane headquarters and others who needed to be ferried by buses.
They were led by the Inwoners Baagi Civic Movement and supported by the Kungwini Residence Alliance, Tshwane Bahlali Dudula and other civic organisations and traditional leaders.
Inwoners Baagi Civic Movement’s Mabopane branch secretary-general, John Madebe, said they were tired of delivering memorandums.
He said they had been doing that with every new mayor and new executive, but the plight of their people wasn’t considered.
“At this point we do not even believe we still have a mayor. I do not remember a time when Mayor Randall Williams visited the townships to engage our people.
“I do not believe Williams and his people can tell you in detail about the state of the roads and potholes in our townships.
“They just do not go there to see where we are living, but they are sending our elderly homeowners illegal and exorbitant bills based of estimates that were done for years without actually meter reading – something that is illegal.
“We believe Williams and his executive have abandoned us, the people, of the townships. We don’t see members of the Tshwane Metro Police Department patrolling our roads.
“There is a difference between patrolling the roads and just waiting on a corner.
“If you go into our townships there are no street lights. We do not understand this neglect of our people, because we voted for you people; why are you neglecting us? That is why our hashtag for this demonstration says, Le rena re batho (we are also human); why are we neglected?”
The crowd implored the Tshwane administration to confront and eradicate the hijacking of buildings and houses. They say these are then used for drug dealing, human trafficking and other crimes through a “collaborative initiative” with the SAPS.
They called for an increase of the staff complement by 5 000.
They want the municipality to permanently absorb security guards, general workers and those employed under the Expanded Public Works Programme. Critical to enabling this would be the eradication of labour brokers.
They want serious steps taken to improve the state of public healthcare, particularly challenges caused by long queues.
The residents want all sports and recreational facilities in the townships to be properly maintained. Another demand was for the City to improve the state of public transport, including the introduction of dedicated taxi routes and subsidisation of all taxi commuters.
“We want the City of Tshwane to register all those people they de-registered from the indigent list. Our people need clean drinkable water and sanitation. We want the formalisation of all information settlements,” Madebe said.
The secretary-general of the Kungwini Residence Alliance said they travelled from Bronkhorstspruit to inform the administration that their area was thriving when it was an independent district municipality and before it was incorporated into Tshwane in 2016.
He said the Tshwane regional offices in their area had officials who didn’t have any powers to make decisions.
The residents threatened a shutdown of Tshwane because no one had come to receive their memorandum.
Pretoria News