The Gauteng Legislature’s petitions standing committee was forced to cancel its public hearing in Mamelodi on Friday due to the failure of the City of Tshwane to submit all relevant petitions reports in time.
The meeting was expected to be held at the Stanza Bopape community hall, where Mamelodi, Eersterust, Rayton, Kameeldrift and Ekangala would have received first-hand information from municipal officials with regard to complaints of service delivery in their respective areas.
But that never materialised as the City failed to timeously report on petitions that were meant to be heard in a public hearing concerning different service delivery petitions, according to committee chairperson advocate Ezra Letsoalo.
Letsoalo said that, in accordance with the petitions system, hearings are a form of escalation when authorities following numerous extensions did not submit reports required to resolve petitions.
“Eight of the 10 petitions that were meant to be tabled this morning, were selected from a large pool of the City’s petitions that the committee has in its petitions register directly impacting on service delivery from areas like Mamelodi, Eersterust, Rayton, Kameeldrift and Ekangala,” he said.
He slammed the municipality for not submitting reports to the committee two days prior to the scheduled hearing, as such a failure hampered the committee’s work.
The failure to submit the report on time, he said, hindered the committee’s ability to adequately engage and comprehend the reports and reduced the committee’s ability to perform a mediatory role between the City and petitioners on the day of the hearing.
“The non-action by the City’s authorities has undermined the legislature’s mandate of public participation and oversight.
“This action further delays the conclusion of petitions, thereby keeping the petitions register stagnant, frustrating not only the committee in its role but also slowing down the redress mechanism for ordinary citizens whose last and only hope is in the hands of the legislature,” Letsoalo said.
He said the non-response from public authorities, whether local municipalities or Gauteng government departments, would not be tolerated.
“Further escalations will be applied in line with the Petitions Act no 5 of 2002, where senior public representatives will be subpoenaed to appear before the committee,” he said.
Pretoria News