August 29, 2003
By Lucky Sindane
Two major issues were raised by the small group of Region 3 residents who turned out to meet Johannesburg Executive Mayor Amos Masondo and his committee at the Sandown Hall this week: crime and power outages.
The mayor was wrapping up his State of the City discussions with Sandton business representatives by hosting a public forum. Outside the hall were a small group of protestors holding anti-crime placards.
The protest was a follow-up to a demonstration held earlier in the day by family and friends of Albert Papadellis, who died after being shot in a hijacking in Germiston. "People should stand together against crime," said John Papadellis, Albert's brother. " We want a safe and secure country," he added.
Addressing the issue of crime, Masondo told the residents attending the report-back that there were more than 2 000 metro police in the city.
Mayoral committee member for public safety, Sizakele Nkosi, said the City wanted to employ a total of 4 000 metro police officers. "We are recruiting about 200 officers a year."
The mayor pointed out that crime had dropped by 80 percent in the inner city areas, according to figures from Business Against Crime. "We have also installed surveillance cameras in the inner city and they cover 90 percent of the inner city," Masondo said.
"Every hour and everywhere in the city there are metro police on the streets trying to fight crime," Nkosi added.
On the issue of electricity cuts in Sandton, the mayoral committee acknowledged the problem and said that action would be taken. "There is a problem in the power supply to Region 3," said committee member for municipal services entities, Brian Hlongwa.
Part of the problem was the age of the electricity network, 87-years-old. "The City needs R2-billion, an average of R4-million a year, to manage the electricity network. Given to the size of the city we have tried to deal with the problem in a sustainable way," said Hlongwa.
"The City is working towards being in a position to read every meter every month and we are considering installing prepaid meters," said committee member for development planning and environment, Parks Tau.
