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Chaos at Yeoville meeting |
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So it's just our neighbour, but if you thought WE had heated debates in our community about bowling greens, read on...
Posted 12 February 2007 by Carine Hartman
Where is the missing R73 million earmarked for the upgrade of Yeoville? Rather don’t ask Nomaswazi Mohlala, councillor-elect of this run-down suburb: she’ll have you physically thrown out of her public meeting.
Even a signed petition from residents couldn’t persuade the stocky councillor to answer that question at her Ward Committee meeting on Saturday. Amongst cries of dismay the diminutive woman who dared to ask was carried out of the building by three of Nomaswazi’s “heavies” – and the councillor coolly resumed the meeting with a dismissive: “Don’t worry about that woman; she’s a troublemaker. We know her.”
An unreasonable question? Yes, just R70 million was promised by the Johannesburg Development Agency end 2004 as a “face-lift” for “this economic node that needs rejuvenation”.
And, like many other questions raised from the floor, “this is not the appropriate forum to discuss these questions,” as Nomaswazi said – although the JDA bosses were there giving feedback to the community on the R8,7 million they were willing to spend on the suburb.
The agenda, too, read like a fairy tale: Revitalisation of the Park will be completed in just a month to the tune of R4 million, complete with multipurpose courts “to accommodate all sport that’s currently played like tennis, volleyball and basketball.”
Maybe Nomaswazi didn’t stagger through the dongas and mounds of earth to get to the meeting inside the “nearly completed” park.
Maybe she was relieved that not one question was asked about the “wrong” contractor that started the project and halted progress for months. At what cost, is another question that springs to mind…
The only question she had to field was from a concerned father about the supervision and safety of the children in the new play area.
The new library of R2,2 million also raised only an easy question about pedestrian safety during the building operation.
One woman asked about the drug dealers. She was approached twice on the way to the meeting and found it unacceptable. “Not the appropriate forum. This is a meeting relevant only to JDA issues,” is the answer she gets.
The fourth point on the agenda raises interesting questions. Intensive Urban Management promises problem areas will be addressed like the removal of all waste and rubble; disconnecting illegal connections; dealing with criminal activities related to robbery, rape, hijacking, drugs; dealing with uncontrolled informal trading, illegal clubs and taverns, illegal residents. It was apparently all done by the JDA and “successfully delivered on 31 July 2006”.
No questions asked.
But maybe Nomaswazi took a different route to the meeting and didn’t see the man-high wall of waste in Rockey Street. Or the drugged-out men and women propped up at the entrance to the swimming pool where kids run in and out. Or the man sleeping completely hidden amongst a mountain of rubbish bags in the main street.
The diminutive woman’s friend jumps up and cries about the Metro Police “terrorising” her where she sells cigarettes and chips on a street corner to try and feed her three kids. “Not the appropriate forum.”
Now it’s the diminutive woman’s turn. She rises dramatically and tells Nomaswazi loudly how she has tried for two months to speak to her. Nomaswazi is apparently never in her public office. She waves a piece of paper around: “I have a mandate for my question.” And then she asks the wrong question…
Nomaswazi’s table erupts in protest.
The three men in the audience, who up to now only had to worry about a few noisy kids and fans that never worked, storm to Nomaswazi’s aid. The diminutive woman tries in vain to show Nomaswazi her petition: the men have, by now, grabbed her firmly by the arms and are carrying her out of the building.
So much for democracy and freedom of speech. I’ve heard enough. The meeting started nearly an hour late and, as Nomaswazi said, “we have other engagements to attend and can’t address all these issues today.”
I meet the diminutive woman outside. Her name is Gail and she is furious – and loud. I see the list of signatures she’s collected over the past two weeks. “And whenever I go around to Nomaswazi’s office to ask my question they just tell me I am wrong: it’s not R73 million, it’s R7,3 million.”
Obviously the wrong question – like the questions raised by the more than 200 voices on the Yeoville web. The forum where the Yeovillites talk electronically has been buzzing for the past two weeks with comments like “Councillor Useless has a mandate”; “We don’t get any response from our ward councillor because for one she barely lives within the ward boundaries”; “A Cold War against the councillor,” and “The lack of action to complaints that have been discussed with the Councillor over many years…”
But those voices of dissent were not heard amongst the crowd of about 60 this weekend. As they were strangely quiet when I offered to put them on air when I ask Nomaswazi some burning questions on Radio Today 1485AM’s community program Voice of the Suburbs on Saturday.
One voice was nearly crucified when he called the forum “armchair critics”. But he is right.
Nomaswazi can sleep easy.
Until Saturday…
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