Pretoria - Hundreds of residents in Masechaba and Coolbreeze in Duduza will soon enjoy clean water and flushing toilets.
This was a promise by Ekurhuleni Executive Mayor Mondli Gungubele to affected communities during Service Delivery Friday. Service Delivery Fridays were launched by the mayor late last year as a tool to speed up service delivery.
The programme has led to the deployment of all members of the mayoral committee to the various customer care centres every alternate Friday so they can interact with communities and assist in addressing their concerns with regards to service delivery.
During his visit to Duduza, Gungubele said about 83 stands in Masechaba proper would receive clean water and functioning sanitation.
"We have also identified land in Coolbreeze which will be developed into 55 stands to benefit some families who are sharing single stands with other families in Duduza. We will relocate them to their new stands to enjoy total ownership of their stands and will have these stands serviced also by end of April," said Gungubele, adding that this was to ensure that dignity was restored to the communities.
The executive mayor also visited a section of Masechaba extension 4, which has no services at all.
"I have given my word to this community to bear with us a little while until August. By end of August, this community will enjoy clean water and flushing toilets. This is the essence of Service Delivery Fridays -- to give our community genuine hope, setting timelines for addressing their challenges and ensuring that we indeed deliver," he said.
The mayor also visited the rates hall in Duduza to assess the attitude of staff in discharging their work, how they implement the Batho Pele principles and the turnaround time to respond to communities' needs.
Another unannounced visit was made to Seat Clinic in Masechaba, where the mayor took senior staff to task for the unacceptable attitude displayed to patients during his visit.
"In the 40 minutes we've been at the clinic, over 20 people were attended to, which clearly shows that despite capacity problems said to be experienced here, it is possible to effectively attend to patients," the mayor said.
