City officials roll up their sleeves to deliver services
Officials of the City of Johannesburg’s Citizen Relationship and Urban Management and of the various municipal-owned entities visited Bosmont in Region B, western Johannesburg, on Thursday to ensure that all service delivery needs facing the community are effectively addressed.
The visit formed part of the City’s Integrated Visible Service Delivery programme.
These regular people-centred campaigns also give the community the opportunity to raise their concerns to enable officials to act promptly.
Solomon Mokgako, an urban inspector who also serves as a Citizen Relationship and Urban Management coordinator, said the service delivery outreach programme also entailed conducting spot checks in the various wards.
The programme, he said, was aimed at forestalling problems or failures that might arise.
“Our primary focus is water, sanitation, lights and electricity, health and public safety, roads, dumping places and waste and environmental planning. Where a problem is identified, a team gets to work immediately,” Mokgako explained.
He said Bosmont, which falls under Ward 82, was singled out for urgent attention after a number of complaints were received from residents. Some of them had been identified by his team.
Other areas still to be visited in Region B include Westbury, Newclare, Claremont, Mount Claire, Newlands and Industria North.
Mokgako said his department would, as was customary, invite officials of Johannesburg City Parks and Zoo, Johannesburg Emergency Management Services, Johannesburg Water, City Power, Johannesburg Roads Agency, Pikitup, Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department, and Environment and Health Department.
All municipal entities would then, on a monthly basis, visit the areas to attend to issues such as dirty streets, faded road markings and street names, damaged stop signs, litter in parks, water leaks, missing manhole covers and stop signs as well as fire hydrant covers, illegal dumping sites and faulty electrical substations, and to enforce compliance with the law.
“Once the work is done I come back a week or so later to see to it that all the complaints and problems have been resolved. I then compile a report and submit it to the management of all relevant departments and entities,” Mokgako said.
During the officials’ visit to Bosmont, Mokgako and his team fined three shop owners R1 000 each and confiscated trading licences of two others for failing to comply with the City’s health and environmental bylaws.
The team, accompanied by members of the South African Police Service and the Gauteng Liquor Board, conducted a blitz on Friday night last week in Ward 117, which includes Rosebank, Parktown North and Parkhurst after receiving complaints from the public.
There were also complaints that some of the restaurants and night clubs failed to keep to required noise levels at night.