The Mayoral Pop-Up Office made its seventh stop in Heideveld today where I was joined by Mayoral Committee Member for Area Central, Councillor Siyabulela Mamkeli, and Ward Councillor Anthony Moses.
We began our visit to the area with a tour of Anthony Road Park (Athlone) which has recently been upgraded. This project demonstrates our commitment to providing communities with quality social amenities. For the 2018/19 financial year, Ward 44 has set aside nearly R500 000 to upgrade parks including in Luyoloville.
This will ensure our children and residents have quality facilities close to their homes.
During our engagements with residents many raised housing issues, particularly about their wait on the housing database.
There are 36 housing developments which have been allocated budget for the next three financial years and Heideveld is one of the areas to benefit from the R2,1 billion investment.
This project will accommodate the Heideveld Duinefontein housing development which has delivered 738 units.
Approximately 96 percent of the beneficiaries have taken occupation and the City is working to ensure the remaining new homeowners move into their houses soon.
I am also donating two shipping containers to the Women 4 Justice – a women-led organisation assisting residents with their needs and advocating for safety of community members. The containers will be used as their office of operations.
Earlier today, I also joined Ward Councillor Carl Punt (Ward 83) at the recently upgraded Strand Pavilion Precinct where the City has spent just over R11 million to ensure that residents enjoy a clean beach and ocean with beautiful scenery.
The City has also just completed phase 1of the upgrades to the Strand Seawall and is in in the planning phase for the rest of the work on the wall.
Councillor Punt’s ward was also allocated about R100 000 in the 2018/19 financial year for the upgrade of the Lourens River and Dick Dent Bird Sanctuary. Priority will also be given to the cleaning of the Asanda Village area as well as pedestrian facilities for the Strand CBD.
In addition, Broadway Boulevard, which connects a number of suburbs in the Strand, is currently being expanded from two to four lanes.
Engagements with residents in the two communities as part of the Mayoral Pop-Up Office today are about providing a face-to-face platform for residents to share their concerns about service delivery, as well as their ideas on how the City can improve services to the community.
When Council approved the Organisational Development and Transformation Plan (ODTP) our goal was to ensure that the administration was customer-centric, putting the needs of Capetonians first, and I believe the Mayoral Pop-Up Office is assisting us to realise this aim.
Since the start of this innovative concept two months ago, we have visited various communities and have dealt with around 150 individual complaints ranging from housing queries to water billing and refuse collection.
It is our intention to take the Mayoral Pop-Up Office to as many communities as possible to give residents an opportunity to hold us accountable for ensuring the best quality of service for all residents of this great city.