At the monthly Sub-council 12 meeting held at Lentegeur Chambers on Thursday August 17, topics on the agenda included the Open Space Rationalisation Framework, child safety, electricity tarrifs and the Expanded Public Works Programme.
The meeting was chaired by Sheval Arendse.
During the discussion of the Open Space Rationalisation Framework, Nigel Titus, from the City’s Urban Integrations Department, delivered a presentation on the proposed plan for alternative use of open land in Mitchell’s Plain.
According to the City of Cape Town, the Recreation and Parks Department suggested that there may be an over-supply of land reserved for parks and public open spaces in the area that fell under Sub-council 12 and which served as the pilot for this exercise.
They asked the City’s Transport and Urban Development Authority (TDA) to investigate this assumption and to make recommendations for possible pockets that may be redundant, given the ratios prescribed by the CSIR for parks and open spaces.
The purpose of the project is therefore to confirm the need for parks in the area and the City’s available resources to maintain these public open spaces in the long-term.
The Mitchell’s Plain councillors supported the plan, saying that open spaces were being neglected. (“Making use of open spaces”, Plainsman, August 23).
Child safety
Mr Arendse called on volunteer crime fighters to take care while on patrol – and for parents to look out for their children.
This comes after a 13-year pupil from Yellowwood Primary School, was gunned down in Tafelsig and another teen, whose parents belong to the neighbourhood watch, was stabbed in his chest in Lost City on Saturday August 12. The teen is in hospital in a critical condition. “Our children are at risk,” said Mr Arendse, adding that: “there is now a new wave of hijacking hitting Mitchell’s Plain. When you see an unmarked vehicle, report this immediately.”
Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP)
According to the EPWP progress report for the third quarter of the 2016/17 financial year, the programme had created 44 942 work opportunities, against the 42 500 target in 2015/16 year.
The City of Cape Town embarked on a door-to-door Job Seekers Programme between May and June last year.
Sub-council 12 currently has a total of 24 895 job seekers on the EPWP database, with 4 536 of them in Ward 78, 6 963 in Ward 79, 5 616 in Ward 81 and 778 in Ward 82.
Water crisis
With dam storage levels currently at 34.2% and useable water at 24.2 percent, Mr Arendse said reducing consumption still remained “absolutely vital”.
“To ensure that we build the necessary reserves by conserving water while we still have it, we are carrying on with intense pressure reduction to lower water use, as well as carrying out dedicated enforcement efforts across the metro,” he said.
Residents can contact the City via email to water@capetown.gov.za for queries or to report contraventions of the water restrictions (evidence should be provided to assist the City’s enforcement efforts), or they can send an SMS to 31373. He said water supplied by the City remains safe to drink and is tested in accordance with the most rigorous safety standards.
Electricity tariffs
Mr Arendse said there was much misinformation in the public sphere about electricity tariff increases at the moment. “Firstly, that our vulnerable residents are no longer supported by the City of Cape Town and secondly, that our tariffs are higher than that of a metro such as Johannesburg. These assertions are false. Our tariffs are structured to ensure that the most vulnerable residents remain highly subsidised and assisted in the most sustainable manner for the City,” he said.
He said the energy tariffs remained consumption-based, so the less you used, the less you paid. “We recover the cost of electricity to ensure that we provide reliable supply to all, including those who are vulnerable. Whether you use more or less, it costs us the same to supply electricity,” he said.
Library and Information Services
Mitchell’s Plain Library and Information Services are engaging in various initiatives for the young and old. Westridge library staff members have inducted and trained eight of their senior citizens to use the Smart Cape computers.
Rocklands library’s staff served soup and bread to more than 80 residents and Tafelsig library had a successful story-telling session and served a hot soup to about 200 library users.