We want clinics, libraries, residents tell IDP meeting

19 April 2017
 

Residents of Doornkop and surrounding informal settlements as well as Dobsonville Gardens in Region C have given the City of Johannesburg a list of service delivery projects they feel should be included in the Integrated Development Plan (IDP) to enhance their quality of life.

 

The demands – which include the building of schools, libraries, clinics, recreational centres and the establishment of a Jozi SME hub – were made at an IDP meeting held at the Doornkop Community Hall last night (Tuesday April 18).

Residents said new and existing clinics should have the capacity to cater even for patients suffering from schizophrenia.

“We need our clinics to accommodate people living with schizophrenia and bipolar because we cannot always send our family members away for treatment,” said Doornkop resident Mathapelo Ndaba.

Residents told City officials, including Regional Director Mlamleli Belot, that the establishment of a Jozi SME hub was critical as it would help local youths to develop their business ideas. Over and above the demands, the residents wanted the City to provide time frames for each and every development it undertook.

“That way, as the community, we would be familiar with all the steps of the processes. This would ultimately bring back our confidence in the City,” said Simphiwe Mini of Thulani. 

Other residents, such as Tshepo Mofokeng, were concerned about unemployed youth. Mofokeng said the youth should be given the opportunity to work whenever there were development projects.

“We don’t want to end up with a situation in which people who are unknown to our communities are brought here, while we have so many unemployed youths,” Mofokeng said.

He also said the Jozi SME hub in Marshall Street in the Johannesburg CBD was not accessible to poor members of his community.

In his response, Belot said “in the long run, [the Jozi SME hub] has to be around a community”. “In the interim, we are going to discuss how we will resolve this,” he said. He concurred with the residents on the importance of libraries.

“With a library, the youth will have access to free Wi-Fi and the Massive Open University (MOOV). If we can build a library for them it will also boost people’s confidence in the City. That is what we are going to push for,” Belot said.

He said that the City was continuing with the process of building more clinics.