Pretoria - City of Tshwane mayor Randall Williams has re-initiated the Service Delivery War Room in the metro.
Historically, the war room provided a crucial mechanism in which departments would account directly to the political leadership on their operational performance pertaining to core service delivery.
“This structure was introduced by my predecessor, Solly Msimanga, and it became a critical mechanism to engage directly with the operational staff involved in front-line service delivery.
“Unfortunately, when the city was dissolved by the ANC Gauteng provincial government and administrators were deployed, they chose to abandon the service delivery war room.
“In doing so they effectively removed significant oversight on the city’s core business.
“This resulted in a rapid and visible decline in the quality of service delivery at a time when residents needed it the most – during the hard lockdown,” Williams said.
The mayor claimed the administrators undid and neglected all the work and tracking that had been put in place to monitor the city’s performance on basic service delivery.
“I have now given instruction that this structure will meet weekly and will report back directly to the political leadership,” he said.
He said the unit would start tracking and reporting on current operational status of street lights and the city’s overall level of illumination and deploy operations to deal with illegal dumping and the prosecution of offenders.
Illegal electricity connections would be removed and the mechanisms utilised to protect the electrical grid.
Other functions would include keeping an eye on response times in the repair and maintenance of malfunctioning traffic lights and the filling of potholes, anti-cable theft operations, response times to electricity outages and water pipe bursts and reporting on grass cutting and park maintenance.
“A mayoral dashboard has been implemented to track these and other crucial deliverables so that I can hold officials to account on their performance and provide feedback to you, the residents of this city,” Williams said.
“In achieving these goals I will ensure that I work closely with MMCs, in particular the MMC for Utilities and Regional Operations and Co-ordination, Phillip Nel, who will play a crucial role in this regard.
“With his qualifications and extensive professional experience in engineering, I have no doubt we will see change in the quality of service delivery in the City of Tshwane,” the mayor said.
Pretoria News