The Democratic Alliance’s new mayor of the City of Tshwane, Randall Williams, has not even been in office for two days and he is already facing a strike by waste collectors. A small group of waste collectors are demanding to be in-sourced or they are threatening to shut down the city.
The Tshwane Council elected Williams on Friday during the council meeting as the capital’s mayor after the city was under administration since May this year. He received 97 votes, while the Economic Freedom Fighters’ (EFF) candidate Moafrika Mabogwane garnered 25 votes.
The ANC abstained from voting.
Williams says the focus will be on stabilising the administration:
One of the workers, Thabo Legodi, says they are prepared to stop all waste services if their demands to be in-sourced are not acceded to.
He says they have been asking for this for nearly 11 years.
“We started with Sputla, and then he left. Then it was Solly and Solly left and then it was also Mokgalapa and we even engaged the admin. So, we want to engage another mayor here, because we really need the jobs. We are not getting medical aid, we are not getting UIF. But now we decide to engage with them first, but if they don’t want to engage with us, it’s obvious we are going to shut down the whole waste services around Tshwane.”
Service delivery in Tshwane
On Friday, a group of disgruntled Hammanskraal residents marched to the City of Tshwane’s headquarters where the council sitting was held to deliver a memorandum to a council senior officer. The residents say their area has not been supplied with clean water for almost two months.
Hammanskraal is one of the areas where the city has been sending water tanks.
Water crisis in Hammanskraal:
The South African Human Rights Commission has also raised concerns about service delivery issues affecting City of Tshwane residents:
