Plan to tackle Region G service backlogs mooted

20 September 2015

 

Mickey Padiachee, Director of the City of Johannesburg’s Region G, has called on all area and senior managers of municipal entities (MEs) in the region to develop a 100-day service-delivery programme to deal with all backlogs as part of the current municipal term’s “final push”.

 

Padiachee made the call at an integrated service-delivery meeting in Lenasia late last week.

 

He said all area and senior managers of the MEs needed to put their shoulders to the wheel and tackle all service delivery breakdowns before the end of the term.

 

The entities represented at the meeting were the Johannesburg Development Agency, Johannesburg Roads Agency, Johannesburg City Parks & Zoo, Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department, Emergency Management Services and City Power. The meeting, convened by Padiachee, was aimed at finding ways to coordinate service-delivery work and improving communication.

 

“We must connect the dots and ensure we meet all our social obligations in an effective way. This meeting is aimed at shaping our region and everybody has a role to play. We must all strive to make people’s lives in this region better. We have identified the gaps and challenges in this region and we must close them.

 

“We must establish ‘war rooms’ to tackle service-delivery issues in the region. We must do this as a team,” he said.

 

Padiachee said the region was faced with many challenges, chief among which were cable theft, illegal electricity connections, illegal dumping, vandalism of infrastructure, taxi violence, unauthorised use of public spaces, land invasion, crime, poverty and an appalling state of municipal facilities. He appealed to the community to take responsibility and ownership of public facilities such as libraries and clinics.

 

Padiachee added that the region had started a fire awareness campaign in informal settlements to prevent shack fires, especially in winter.