MMC saves the day after residents disrupt IDP review

05 April 2017

 

Cllr Nico de Jager, the Johannesburg Member of the Mayoral Committee who oversees Region C, is to schedule an urgent meeting with relevant stakeholders to address service delivery issues raised by Zandspruit residents during a review of the Integrated Development Plan (IDP) in Boskruin on the West Rand on Tuesday April 4.

 

The IDP review process at the Boskruin Community Centre almost collapsed after the proceedings were disrupted by a group of disgruntled community members.

Cllr De Jager, who also serves as MMC for Environment and Infrastructure Services, was about to take the audience through proposed water and sanitation tariff increases when a community member, identified as Dan Moletsane, Chairman of the South African National Civic Organisation (SANCO) in Ward 97, interrupted him.

Ward 97 includes areas such as Ruimsig and Zandspruit.

Moletsane said the draft IDP document being presented was not “speaking to the needs of the community”. He was joined by a group that claimed that a clinic and public school had not been built as promised since last year.

Officials tried in vain to calm him down. The crowd broke into struggle song and stood on chairs.

“We have issues. These officials must talk about our issues. This IDP draft document does not cover Ward 97. They keep on talking about a clinic that is to be built in Zandspruit but we have not been consulted about it. What we need is for this budget to cover us.

“People who are singing here are homeless. They were evicted from Plot 16. We cannot come here and be undermined by these officials from the City,” said Moletsane.

The group then left the hall and gathered outside, singing and chanting.

The Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department was called in to restore order and the disgruntled community members returned to the meeting.

MMC De Jager said a process of engagement had been disrupted. “In terms of the law, we must table the IDP. This is a process of engagement. Once it has been tabled with public comments it will be adopted by the council in May. What we have witnessed here is an attempt to disrupt the meeting. It is a symptom of what we are dealing with. Tonight we have covered five wards. We were going to come to theirs,” said the MMC.

Once everyone had assembled inside the hall, the disgruntled community members were allowed to raise their issues. But they took exception to this. The clinic issue dominated the session. They said for Zandspruit residents to access healthcare services they had to go all the way to Honeydew, which was far.

That was when MMC De Jager committed himself to engaging a variety of stakeholders, including the Housing Department, to seek a way forward on issues raised at the IDP review. He said the meeting would be held within seven days.

The IDP is a multi-year strategic plan that contains the City’s strategies and implementation plans required to achieve its vision.

The citywide public consultation process, which started on Monday April 3, will culminate in stakeholder engagement session on Tuesday April 25 when the submissions and proposals from various cluster meetings will be communicated, discussed and, where applicable, incorporated into the final IDP document