The 14-day deadline handed to Joburg Major Mpho Phalatse to respond to Soweto residents’ service delivery issues has lapsed.
It lapsed a week ago. Last month, hundreds of Soweto residents shut down major roads for days and made their way to the Civic Centre in Braamfontein to deliver a memorandum to Phalatse’s office.
It’s been three weeks since Soweto residents arrived at Phalatse’s office in Braamfontein to hand over a memorandum of demands.
Phalatse’s office said delays in responding to the community’s demands were caused by drawn-out talks with Eskom. Top on the list of demands are poor service delivery and incessant power cuts.
The dramatic encounter between the mayor and community members culminated in an agreement that would see Phalatse address the service delivery issues within two weeks of the Soweto shutdown. The demands were linked to Eskom amid ongoing standoffs between residents and the power utility.
Phalatse’s spokesperson Mabine Seabe said the delays are due to the protracted discussions with Eskom: “As the City of Johannesburg, we’ve got no operational or management functions when it comes to Eskom. So, we had to engage with Eskom to get some of these answers.”
Seabe said the city has been in contact with leaders and will update the community as soon as possible.