service delivery

Gauteng Premier, Nomvula Mokonyane, has launched a service delivery hotline in Pimville, Soweto.

Mokonyane, who described the hotline as an effort to improve communication with residents, stated that, “This platform will enable residents to escalate matters easily.”

She assured residents that agencies, who will operate the hotline from 07h00 to 22h00 each day, are trained to conduct work effectively. In addition, she maintained that a feedback will be issued within a period of three days.

Ekurhuleni member of the Mayoral Committee for Human Settlements, Queen Duba, says she will present a multimillion-rand plan to the council aimed at changing the face of 101 informal settlements in the Metro.

Duba says she will push for a resolution at the first council meeting of 2012 that R150 million be made available to her department to ensure that all informal settlement dwellers receive basic municipal services such as clean water, electricity and accessible roads for ambulance and police services.

The population and household Census 2011 officially came to an end on 30 October 2011.

However, Statistics South Africa spokesperson, Trevor Oosterwyk, confirms that volunteers will continue counting those who have not been counted during a ‘mop-up’ phase that will be initiated on 31 October 2011.

Oosterwyk points out that, “We have until the 14th to count the rest of the public, this includes those who weren’t home during visits and those who had previously refused to participate.

Swaziland’s Minister of Finance, Majozi Sithole, has told the Senate that each year the country loses nearly double the annual social services budget to corruption, and NGOs are not being spared.

Sithole estimates that about R80 million a month is disappearing - amounting to about R960 million annually - while the government’s 2010/11 budget allocated R562 million to social services, including R182 million for education and R252 million for health.

The Council for the Advancement of the South African Constitution (CASAC) says that there is a strong case for slain protester Andries Tatane's family to sue the state for compensation.
 
CASAC spokesperson, Lawson Naidoo, says the organisation will meet Tatane's family over the next two weeks to explore the options open to them.
 
The family's civil law suit was expected to be directed against Police Minister, Nathi Mthethwa, or National Commissioner, Bheki Cele.
 

Former Cabinet minister, Jay Naidoo, says that politicians and not the police should be sent to defuse service delivery protests.
 
Speaking at Crime Line's fourth anniversary celebrations in Krugersdorp, Naidoo pointed out that, "Politicians must go and speak to the people. The protest is a failed delivery issue and political in nature."
 
Naidoo said communities get angry when their situations are not improving and they see politicians living the high life. He adds that communities protest when they suspect fraud or corruption.