On Wednesday, 25 November 2020, Mayor Dan Plato visited Seawinds, Lavender Hill, Grassy Park, Mitchells Plain, Wallacedene and Bishop Lavis with City Manager Lungelo Mbandazayo and local ward councillors to address service delivery issues affecting these communities. In addition to the pothole repair and clean-up campaigns launched by Mayor Plato, he requested ward councillors to accompany him to personally see the challenges affecting these areas and to resolve these concerns as a matter of urgency.
‘The national lockdown and the limitations placed on municipalities, including ours, has definitely had a visible impact on the way we have been able to provide services to communities. As a way to address this, in addition to the pothole repair and clean-up campaigns, I am also engaging councillors on a range of service delivery concerns, which require attention. This initiative of going into communities was to give focused attention to service delivery challenges and demonstrates that we are absolutely committed to intensifying our efforts to address these challenges for the benefit of all residents,’ said Executive Mayor Dan Plato.
The Executive Mayor has already been visiting teams out on duty to check on progress being made and to boost the efforts of our city road’s teams, as well as going out to communities and joining the Solid Waste staff through a reboot of the City-wide Clean-Up Campaign.
The first site visit stop yesterday was in Seawinds near Muizenberg, which focused on following up on the fixing of street lights, illegal dumping and concerns around sewer blockages as a result of residents continuously placing objects, such as cloths, nappies and waste cement, down the drain system.
The next stop in Lavender Hill at Frere Court and Fawley Court brought attention to the need for staircases to be replaced, as well as council units that needed repairs relating to leaks.
In Grassy Park, there were discussions around the need for pothole repairs and fencing around a piece of city land to assist in safeguarding residents from crime (gang violence).
There were similar concerns around the state of the roads in Bishop Lavis, where the Executive Mayor inspected a number of streets in need of pothole repair.
After that, in Mitchells Plain, Mayor Plato visited the Town Centre, where he was given an overview of the crime prevention activities in the precinct. The City of Cape Town, through the Mayoral Urban Regeneration Programme project, has contributed to fence repairs at the Town Centre as one of the ways to improve safety. A walkabout in the food market covered general safety needs to alleviate petty crime. The Mayor was also alerted to items that needed fixing, such as exposed electricity boxes, and missing manhole covers, which are safety hazards.
In Wallacedene, Mayor Plato inspected sewerage problems that have arisen as a result of ongoing land invasions, as well as illegal electricity connections.
Overall, as lockdown levels have eased, the City is doing everything it can to ensure our service delivery standards return to optimal levels.
Work across the City to clean and maintain parks and open spaces through mowing and grass-cutting services, continue. An immense effort is underway by City staff across directorates to eradicate service delivery backlogs brought on by the national COVID-19 lockdown.