By: Zethu Gweva
It is alleged that the Mdantsane NU9, Dickson Dyani area does not receive any service delivery benefits from the ward 17 councillor Phumla Yenana.
Dickson Dyani Chairperson Monde Ntshebe said the lack of service delivery began when Yenana became the Ward 17 councilor.
Ntshebe added that they have written letters and requested meetings to discuss issues of the illegal electrical connections, bursting water pipes, tar roads which have not been fixed in Dickson Dyani, dumping sites and the unemployment issues.
“The ward councillor promised us that our grievances have been included in the budget which will be released by October 2019. But until this day there are no changes,” he said.
Responding to the complaints Yenana said all the informal settlements in ward 17 have toilets and there are caretakers who are responsible for cleaning them. She said they are in the process of building more toilets in Dickson Dyani and water was installed in 2019.
She added a number of three toilets will be built at the Dickson Dyan area.
“People were sent to inspect the areas where the toilets will be built. It was confirmed that the area where the toilets will be built is set and the ward committee is aware of that,” said Yenana.
Talking about the unfair distribution of service delivery, Ntshembe said the ward councillor focuses only on the area she lives in, which is NU3. He explained that all the roads in her area are tarred and in order for people to be employed there must be brawls.
“When the ward councillor has to employ people after a tender has been released, there are always fights, even after people have registered for the jobs, there must be fights in order for them to start working,” said Ntshembe.
According to Yenana, in terms of road construction, the municipality works in clusters and in Mdantsane they have clusters one, two and three, respectively, which they’ve been given in kilometers to divide amongst themselves as ward councillors.
“I was given three kilometers and before the tar road was constructed, I called a community meeting and residents appointed the priority area they wanted to be done. NU 3 and NU 4 only have a tar road as we could not go beyond the kilometers provided. When the construction began people from Dickson Dyani were also employed,” she said.
After an amount of R700 000 was given to each ward by the municipality, Ntshembe expressed they do not know what the money used for, instead, they were told that the ward councillor bought a PA system and chairs. He added that the councillor went to other areas to address the money issue but failed to do so for the Dickson Dyani area.
“We do not know whether the chairs are the ones we have been using for the past years, and people hire those chairs from the councillor and what do we as the community benefit from that, where does the money go?’’ queried Dyani.
Yenana says in October 2019, she called a community meeting to inform residents about a ward-based plan, where they voiced out what they needed as the community. She said instead of the 500 chairs that were requested, only 150 chairs were delivered, a PA system, and sports equipment and kit for soccer, rugby, and boxing.
“I do not use these chairs to hire out, that is not true. The chairs are for the community and they are used free of charge. Two families from the Dickson Dyani area have used these chairs for their funerals.”