IN 2006 the Drakenstein Municipality launched Ward Committees and I am/was (I don’t know if the committee still exists) a member of the committee in my ward.
According to my understanding the committee was supposed to work with the councillor to improve service delivery and empower and develop people in the ward. However in my ward the last time we sat as a committee was in March 2007.
In 2006 we were invited to a meeting for the Integrated Development Plan (IDP), where we listed our ward priorities in terms of developing the ward.
The Municipality came back in October 2007 with a report (IDP report), that was not accepted by ward 9 residents, because none of their needs were listed.
The short and long of the story is that ward committees must be revived and empowered for the benefit of the community.
Do you call giving people brooms to sweep the streets of Mbekweni for one month and letting them fold arms for eleven months, development? Get out of this place, is the answer.
I strongly believe people can be better served if we empower them with skills - sweeping streets is certainly not one of those skills.
Don’t get me wrong here, Mbekweni must be clean, but the job of cleaning the streets must be given to a contractor not the councillor.
Thembelani Zweni (ward committee member)
Anthony Sauls, spokesperson for the Municipality, replies: The functioning of the ward committees resorts under the office of the Speaker. Ward committees are a relevant resource to assist the ward councillor to address certain issues in the wards. An additional process is started every year where the ward committee and the ward councillors are consulted for specific ward projects. Clean and green projects have been identified by some wards and once approved are implimented by the administration and not the ward councillor. Any ward committee member that has any complaints about the functioning of their specific ward committee, must forward such complaints to the office of the Speaker.
