On Wednesday, 10 October 2018, Executive Mayor – Patricia de Lille, City of Cape Town took the Mayoral Pop-Up Office to Ward 4 in Milnerton where I visited homes in Phoenix and shared information about city projects and listened to residents’ complaints in Joe Slovo Park.
Mayco Member for Area North, Councillor Suzette Little, and Ward Cllr Mlulami Ngeyi joined me on a walkabout of the area and on our visit to the Masikhululeke Educare Centre.
Employees from the City of Cape Town’s Housing, Water and Sanitation, Stakeholder Relations and Revenue departments were on hand to listen and provide information to residents.
The Mayoral Pop-Up Office is part of the City’s service delivery outreach programmes aimed at improving relations between the municipality and residents. Through this initiative, my office has dealt with more than 950 complaints from residents since the first pop-up office was held in Athlone in June.
It was the ninth pop-up office following my visits to areas including Eerste River, Khayelitsha, Masiphumele, Albow Gardens, Pelican Park, Heideveld and Jim se Bos. The Mayoral Pop-Up Office is an initiative that speaks to the goals in the City’s Organisational Development and Transformation Plan (ODTP) to be an accessible and customer-centric administration.
I started my morning with a visit to Phoenix resident Aunty Muriel Vambo, 83, who first moved into her home in 2000. I was very grateful to hear about the wonderful efforts Aunty Muriel and her family employed to save water this past year.
The Vambo family saves all their bath water and grey water for washing floors and windows around the house, while Aunty Muriel continues to use a ‘skottel’ to wash. Thanks to residents like the Vambo family, Cape Town was able to avoid running out of water during the most severe drought.
I also met senior residents from Joe Slovo during an impromptu street meeting where I met pensioner Mzwake Nyuku. He makes use of the activities at the local community hall to keep active.
Over the past year the City employed 15 EPWP workers as home-based carers to look after the 340 elderly and vulnerable residents in the ward. The carers partnered with TB/HIV Care and also assisted residents with exercises, walking with them, socialising, shopping, respite care and reading.
These carers are providing support to our most vulnerable residents and their efforts speak to the City’s vision to create a caring Cape Town.
I also met Principal Nokuzola Dlabantu who showed me around Masikhululeke Educare Centre. The Early Childhood Development Centre looks after 105 children from the ages of 3 to 6 years old in Joe Slovo. I was inspired to see Principal Dlabantu and her teachers build the confidence of the next generation of young leaders.
Recently, the City’s Disaster Risk Management Centre trained staff from 100 ECD centres to help ensure the safety of children in their care during an emergency. Dlabantu also said she and her staff received training last week to prepare children for Grade 1. She explained that the centre urgently needs more space to accommodate more children in the ward.
I was also pleased with the progress Cllr Ngeyi has made to restore trust between the community and the City. In June last year, the community was unhappy with the previous councillor’s performance and the community hall and MyCiTi bus stop were vandalised.
Since the election of Cllr Ngeyi in August 2017, calm has returned to Joe Slovo and the City has repaired the hall. Ward projects are up and running.
Currently there are nine ward allocation projects for Ward 4, which stretches from Joe Slovo Park to Sunset Beach in the west. The projects include youth empowerment, activities for the elderly, crime prevention programmes, park maintenance and traffic calming project
I encouraged residents to continue holding their councillors and City employees to account on the promises they made. If we have active residents and a City that continues to listen to their community, we can make more progress possible together.