ABERDEEN NEWS - Following the clean-up demonstration by the Aberdeen ratepayers on Monday, a meeting between two ratepayers' representatives, Hein (Hantie) Marx and Jurgen Strydom and the Dr Beyers Naude Local Municipality took place on Thursday 11 February.
According to Strydom, the municipal representatives had a positive attitude and apologised for not showing up at a previous appointment scheduled for 18 January.
At Thursday's meeting agreement was reached about short- and medium-term service delivery interventions by the municipality in Aberdeen. The short-term agreements include that the municipality will send 10 people with a loader and a new tipper to clean up all areas in the town.
They requested the ratepayers to send an e-mail with the issues discussed at the meeting, following which they will also respond to issues raised in the e-mail sent by the ratepayers on 9 October last year.
Commitments
It was decided that municipal officials will visit Aberdeen in the near future to listen to the broader community's gripes and to reach an amicable agreement on what should be done to assist with service delivery. They committed to meetings on a 3-monthly basis to discuss progress.
Ratepayers are hopeful that these commitments were more than just words and that it will be carried out.
The ratepayers have scheduled an appointment with the municipal area manager of Aberdeen, Clive Kombani for today (Thursday 18 February), to discuss time frames, after which another e-mail will be sent to the municipality to formalise their undertakings for monitoring purposes.
Hein (Hantie) Marx, one if the driving forces behind the ratepayers’ demand for service delivery in Aberdeen.
Aberdeen locals meet
On Tuesday evening the ratepayers had a meeting with Aberdeen residents from the local communities like Lotusville and Thembalesizwe so that everyone could voice their concerns about service delivery and to discuss working together to keep the town clean,
Hantie Marx told the Advertiser that one of their biggest concerns is that officials are being paid to do their jobs and to provide services, but that many just accept their monthly pay check for doing absolutely nothing.
"Those who are paid to clean up, should do so." He also said that it is every individual's responsibility to keep the town clean and to not litter or partake in illegal dumping."
While the residents of Aberdeen seem eager to cooperate, it unfortunately appears as if the municipality is already defaulting on the short-term clean-up commitment it made. At the time of going to press on Wednesday morning, the 10 people and the promised loader and tipper, were yet to arrive.
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