Mayor in Bonteheuwel spat

Mayor Patricia de Lille

Mayor Patricia de Lille

Published Oct 4, 2015

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Carlo Petersen

THE City remains undeterred by the Bonteheuwel Joint Peace Forum (JPF), which has accused mayor Patricia de Lille of failing to consult the community about projects to upgrade the area.

De Lille met the community after residents protested at the sub-council offices in the area to express their grievances.

JPF chairperson Gereldine Kennedy said the meeting erupted into chaos after De Lille allegedly stated: “We are the government, we will do as we please and do not have to ask anyone’s permission to do so.”

Kennedy alleged: “She followed this by saying audibly: ‘ Voetsek, julle is mos ANC(Get lost, you are from the ANC)’.”

De Lille denied making the comments and has since blamed the JPF for disrupting the meeting.

“The JPF, a group of five or six people, violently broke up the meeting, where more than 500 beneficiaries of the Backyarder Programme (had) come to listen,” said De Lille.

The mayor said the City would not allow the JPF to deprive “almost 1 000 families” of basic services residents were promised in 2011”.

“We are the only metro in South Africa to provide services to people while they are waiting for an opportunity on the Housing Needs Database. We are responding to the needs of this community and not the self-elected detractors of service delivery to the most vulnerable,” De Lille said.

Kennedy said: “It is a given that the City failed to consult us. They claim that the JPF does not want services brought to unserviced dwellers.”

She said the JPF welcomed the City’s services in Bonteheuwel.

“We demand exactly what the City wanted in the toll road court case, namely consultation and respect,” Kennedy said.

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