Enoch Ndima, a disabled resident of Ivory Park, was handed a house by Johannesburg mayor Geoff Makhubo and MMC for Transport Nonhlanhla Makhuba. Picture: Itumeleng English/African News Agency (ANA)
Johannesburg - The City of Joburg’s service delivery acceleration programme left a smile on the faces of several residents in Ivory Park.
This comes after Joburg mayor Geoff Makhubo, along with his executive committee members, visited the township to attend to the needs of the community.
According to Makhubo, the visit forms part of the measures he will deploy in his fight against crime and grime in the country’s financial capital, to take it back to its place of being “a world-class African city”.
Makhubo found himself in the midst of things along with Joburg Road Agency officials as they repaired the roads in the township.
In the Albert Luthuli section, the mayor handed over a new house with furniture to Enock Ndima, who is has mental health problems.
Ndima pleaded with the Housing Department and the ward councillor, indicating that he is a sick person who lives in a depleted shack, and when it rains the water runs through his shack and everything becomes wet.
The provincial department and the city considered him when they built 150 houses across all wards in Ivory Park, including ward 77 where he lives.
The city council has promised Ndima that electrification of the house will be done by Eskom, and the house will be electrified by the end of May.
City Power officials were also on site attending to electrical challenges of the community along with the mayor.
Caroline Chauke, who has been living in Chris Hani section, was a beneficiary of this category as her house was electrified.
“I didn’t have electricity for about 20 years, this is a big change for me and my family.
“I really appreciate the mayor and the City of Joburg for making sure that we have electricity.
“I also wish that what they have done for me can be done to others.”
Makhubo said they want to improve the daily living conditions of residents.
The mayor said they were effectively living up to their promise that they wanted to improve people’s lives.
“We are starting the process of improving service delivery which is why we have decided to come to the ground.”
With an estimated 10 million trees within Joburg, creating shade and helping to clean the air, the city has encouraged residents to look after their trees by reporting vandalism and theft.
In the next coming days, the city council will begin the planting of 10 trees in Rabie Ridge and Greater Ivory Park.
The Star