Gatvol gogos toyi toyi for services!

MAMELODI Concerned Residents for Service Delivery marched to Tshwane House on Tuesday, 19 March.

The residents from Mamelodi and surrounding areas in Tshwane are demanding service delivery from the city.

The leader of the organisation, Oupa Mtsweni said the municipality must scrap the water and electricity billings. The residents also want services such as fixing blocked sewarage, streetlights and repairing of bad roads.

He said the municipality must remove illegal water and electricity connections in informal settlements. He said they demand municipal officials to engage residents in whatever they do.

Tshwane senior citizens, mainly from Mamelodi and Atteridgeville, said they are frustrated with the water and electricity billing. Photo by Raymond Morare

Tshwane senior citizens mainly from Mamelodi and Atteridgeville also called for the municipality to remove illegal water and electricity connections. Photo by Raymond Morare

"We marched complaining of the same problems since 2018 and nothing is being done," he said.

Mtsweni said the march is led by frustrated senior citizens from Mamelodi and Atteridgeville, who are frustrated about billings.

"We want amnesty on water and electricity billings. We want municipal contractors to be dissolved and the municipality itself to take care of services in Tshwane," he said.

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He said all the informal settlements must be destroyed and replaced with RDP houses. "We also need sports and recreation facilities that need to be revamped to empower the youth," he said.

Mpho Mabala, general secretary of Saulsville Atteridgeville Lotus Concerned Residents Association, said they were part of the march because they experience similar problems.

"We've submitted our memorandum of demands at least four times and we are still waiting for the response," he said.

He said they want service delivery and all the billing debt in Tshwane to be cancelled. He said they are demanding flat rates to be introduced.

Tshwane senior citizens mainly from Mamelodi and Atteridgeville also called for municipal officials to engage with them. Photo by Raymond Morare

Tshwane senior citizens mainly from Mamelodi and Atteridgeville said they have been complaining about the same issues since 2018. Photo by Raymond Morare

"We're pleading with the city to stop switching off residents' electricity. We need the electricity to be supplied to residents directly from Eskom and don't need the city to be a middleman. We want the formalisation of informal settlements," said Mabala.

He said they are giving the municipality 14 days to respond to their grievances.

Tshwane Finance MMC Jackie Uys received the memorandum from the residents and said she would look into their grievances and communicate back to them through their leaders.