GOOD: press statement by Gavin Joachims
GOOD: City of Cape Town Councillor
31 March 2022
The Hill-Lewis administration has today announced its clean-up campaign for the city. This campaign effectively blames the residents for the state of cleanliness when, in fact, it is the city’s failure to provide the necessary services to ensure the city is kept clean.
Contrary to what the Mayor wants you to believe, it is indeed the city that is refusing to fill vacancies to keep the city clean and is instead opting to use EPWP workers instead.
As such GOOD urges Mayor Hill-Lewis to employ the 3000 workers needed to improve service delivery to ensure the necessary repairs and maintenance of waste pickup trucks becomes a priority.
This would be a better use of his time rather than his insulting public relations effort to pin the city administrations service failures on the residents it is elected to serve.
Indeed Mayor Hill-Lewis and his media team have already hit the streets in kit-white gloves and brand-new t-shirts to pose in communities advocating that the filthy state of communities is the residents’ own doing, and that the City Mayor will shame residents by picking up papers on their streets.
The fact is that there are only 120 functional refuse removal trucks out of 300 plus, servicing our communities. At times many streets are by-passed, and people have to pull over-flowing bins back into their yards. There are no or few green bins, no skips, and when residents log service complaints for removal of dirt, these same service request tickets are closed without complaints being tended to.
This is a clear indication that services are not being delivered, especially not to our poorest communities.
Yet ratepayer rands and resources are now allocated to the Mayor’s “blame game” clean-up campaign which includes exorbitant costs for t-shirts, paraphernalia and outsourced media to show the Mayor “cleaning the streets”.
It is unacceptable and an insult to the thousands of people who have become disillusioned in the city government.
There needs to be more frequent refuse collections in all communities, not only in the green leafy suburbs where different collections have been introduced for refuse and recyclables. Turnaround time for cleansing complaints should not be different in Khayelitsha and Bishops Court.
The only way to bring about the change needed in poorer communities is not to point the finger at them, but to admit that there is lack of services in these communities and to rectify by standing accountable as the City of Cape Town.
What is needed is the continuation of drop-off facilities and not their closure. Additionally, the city needs to provide extra bins to residents and communities and to ensure that equipment and infrastructure is in place and functional in order to provide the needed cleansing services in all communities. Not to rack up more frivolous vanity campaign expenditure.
Media enquiries:
Gavin Joachims, GOOD City of Cape Town Councillor:
Cell: 060 341 4091
Email: gavinjoachims@gmail.com
Samkelo Mgobozi, GOOD: Media Manager
Cell: 0792315977 (Whatsapp)/0829684021 (calls)
Email: samm@forgood.org.za