Tshwane Mayor Cilliers Brink led an urban management team to embark on a service delivery blitz in Eersterust with their sights set on fixing faulty street lights, illegal dumping, potholes and marking roads, among other tasks.
This was in the face of recent stinging criticism from ActionSA ‒ a member of the multi-party coalition government under Brink ‒ that service delivery in townships was unacceptably poor.
ActionSA national chairperson, Michael Beaumont, last week visited parts of Atteridgeville and Soshanguve, where he lamented the poor state of services such as unattended overflowing sewage from a manhole in Block H and piles of rubbish dumped in open spaces in Atteridgeville.
He blamed “the regression of service delivery in the townships” on the DA-led multi-party government in Tshwane, saying there were concerns raised by his party structures; “why ActionSA is having to take drastic steps of reviewing our involvement in this coalition”.
The comments were made ahead of September 26 ordinary council sitting at which the ANC is expected to table a motion of no confidence to remove Brink as the mayor of Tshwane with the help of ActionSA and EFF.
Accompanied by DA ward 43 councillor Benjamin Lawrence and MMC for Finance Jacqui Uys, Brink descended on Eersterust on Monday to address key service delivery issues as part of the urban management programme.
He expressed satisfaction that substantial work has been done over the past few days to increase illumination levels in the area.
He said work was done to repair street lights and faulty cables and replace day and night switches to prevent the lights from burning during the day.
“Most streets now have illumination for the first time in many years,” he said.
Other work included removing dumping sites, replacing bollards and signage at two parks in the area, fixing potholes and marking roads.
There was a burst pipe affecting the water supply in the area and Brink said teams were on-site attending to it.
He said: “The urban management programme continues to make significant strides in our city and has fixed street lights in the inner city, Soshanguve, Mabopane, Olievenhoutbosch and Centurion.”
In ward 64, a DA MMC for Corporate and Shared Services Dana Wannenburg was joined by former Finance MMC Peter Sutton to participate in work by the urban management team to paint roads, fix street lights, cut trees, and open up clogged storm water drains.
Sutton thanked Brink for the initiative which has been in place since the beginning of the year.
“We had a vision and he was very clear on what he wanted to see and achieve and we can see it today. We know we have a lot more to do but we thank the mayor, his team and his executive office for this initiative,” he said
Pretoria News