Daily Dispatch: Still no word from the mayor

http://www.dispatch.co.za/article.aspx?id=190961

Daily Dispatch

Still no word from the mayor

2008/04/09

By SINO MAJANGAZA

RESIDENTS of informal settlements from Mdantsane, who marched to East London’s city hall last month to hand over a list of grievances to executive mayor Zintle Peter, are still waiting for a response.

Now they have decided to write a letter to Peter to ask her why it is taking her this long to respond to their grievances.

About 300 people from NU1, NU2, NU3 and NU10 informal settlements marched to the city hall last month protesting against what they called “municipal sabotage”.

The residents claimed there were deliberate attempts to deny them basic services.

Councillor Luntu Bobo, who accepted the memorandum on Peter’s behalf, promised at the time to give a response after 21 days.

It is now 29 days , and they are yet to receive correspondence from the municipality.

Speaking on behalf of the residents, Primrose Ntondini, a resident at Nkomponi informal settlement in NU1, said they were very disappointed at the way the municipality had handled their complaints.

“We have not heard anything, but we were promised a response last week. This is a serious matter, but they do not treat it as serious,” she said.

They said yesterday that they will not rest until their demands are met.

They claim they have been denied access to basic services for far too long, as their settlements have no proper sanitation, running water or electricity.

To make it worse, some are getting water and electricity bills for houses that have not yet been built.

Another resident, Pumlani Mkhupha, said: “We need basic services. We are tired of this life we are living. We want to know what is happening. Why are they taking so long to respond?”

Contacted for comment this week, Bobo said they were still compiling the response.

“Once we are done we will then respond. They must rest assured that we will respond,” he said, adding that the mayor did not want to make unfeasible promises.

“We want to tell them something we are sure about,” he said.