While it is evident that many Metro Councils in particular the ANC led Councils, throughout the country, are failing residents, concerning service delivery, local residents are naturally more concerned about poor service delivery affecting them or their Ward at local level.
This follows ongoing complaints received from residents of Wards 61, which comprises Laudium, Erasmia, Gerhardsville, Claudius and Itireleng, who have been having numerous complaints against the ANC led Tshwane Council and ANC Ward Cllr Patel. However, Patel and his seeming ‘body guard, ‘ CPF chair, Shaheen Wahab, in response to his critics, scored an own goal recently, by indicating to local residents on social media, that it was not only his Ward that had problems with service delivery, but also other wards in the ANC led Tshwane Council. Some of the posts sent out by Patel and his ‘CPF body guard’ read, “now parts of Centurion without lights and water..” with his ‘sidekick’ Shaheen of the CPF responding, “they say only Laudium suffers.. Makes you wonder.” These posts were found by many to be unusual, with one resident who is an ANC member, saying, “It is very disturbing for an ANC Councillor to complain or highlight service delivery problems in other wards of the ANC led Tshwane Council. Patel is certainly confirming that the ANC led Tshwane Council is in fact failing almost all the people of Tshwane. I also found it strange that Shaheen seems to be more interested in protecting the Cllr then focussing on crime in the area. Shaheen should ask himself why, after he took over as chair of the CPF, have residents started panicking about crime to a point where they have now closed off their streets with gates.” Criticism against Patel having double standards, being an ANC member and apparently the coordinator of the ‘South African Friends of Palestine’ in SA, has also been received. Questions have been asked as to why, to this date, has Patel not challenged his ANC President, Cyril Ramaphosa, for not signing the resolution proposed by the EFF, which was passed by Parliament about two years back, for the Israeli Embassy in South Arica to close. Patel has also been challenged as to why he remained silent when Ramaphosa recently ‘instructed’ the ANC led Jhb Council, not to go ahead with its plan to change Sandton Drive to ‘Laila Khalid Drive’ (a Palestinian freedom fighter). Patel who frequently mixes with high ranking members of the ANC, (apparently so that he could be given some top position in Government), also did not lambast the same ANC that he was sharing cake with recently, or its President, for not bringing the charismatic Naledi Pandor back to Cabinet. It was the same Ramaphosa who told ANC supporters recently not to ‘overdo’ the welcome back ceremony for former Ambassador to the US, Ebrahim Rasool, who was declared ‘persona non grata’ and sent back home to SA, by the Trump administration for speaking out against Pres. Trump.
Claudius residents lights out for Cllr Patel after 3 days of no lights, while Patel & his CPF bodyguard make fun of crises.
…..Claudius residents faced a tough week from last Thursday (April 10) to Saturday (April 12) having no electricity for 3 days Once more local residents complained about the poor service from the Tshwane Council and about Cllr Patel. However, in order to distract from the complaints in hisWard and in a manner seen as distasteful to some residents, Cllr Patel and his seeming shadow Councillor and bodyguard, Shaheen Wahab, referred to lack of services outside the Ward, with Patel posting, “Eldoraigne again no water”, with Shaheen responding in a sarcastic manner, “I thought that only Laudium suffers.” What this pair of ‘jokers’ from the ANC do not seem to understand is that firstly, by residents not having lights or water, it is a serious matter and could be even life threatening for some. Also, it is either way their party, the ANC led Tshwane Council ,that is failing the people of Tshwane and thirdly, by other areas in Tshwane or the country not having services, this does not mean that residents of Ward 61, who voted for Patel, should accept or tolerate poor service delivery in their area. Concerning the complaints of the 3 day outage in Claudius, this is what some of the many residents who complained to the Laudium Sun, said.
Omar Farooq, of Simla Street, Claudius, told the Laudium Sun: “The electricity went off at around 11:30am on Saturday, April 12. At first, I thought it was just load shedding, but then I found out only Claudius was affected. The rest of Laudium and Erasmia still had power. That was really frustrating for me—because every time, it’s us in Claudius who suffer with this ongoing electricity and water crisis. It’s just too much and the council is doing nothing to stop it.” Omar added, “All our food items got spoilt and beyond that—how are people supposed to live for three days without electricity? It’s completely insane. The Council needs to take Claudius seriously. We pay rates and taxes; it’s not like we’re getting electricity for free.”
how people are supposed to live without
electricity for three days, adding “it’s insane.”
Mohammed Imaan Hussain, also of Simla Street, Claudius, told the Laudium Sun: “There was no electricity in Claudius for three days, and we really suffered because of it. We reported it to the Councillor, and the Councillor even visited Claudius, but no action was taken. Only after three days did we finally get our electricity back. The Councillor is doing nothing at all. They just put on a show for the public and post on social media, pretending they’re delivering services to the people of Laudium—but no one is actually doing anything. We pay our bills, and in return, we’re getting this pathetic and disgusting level of service from our Councillor. It’s beyond my understanding how a place like Claudius can be left without electricity for three days. Someone needs to take over the Council, reform the entire governing body, and start fresh—so that a capable leader can step in and actually make a difference.”
Claudius, said “we pay our bills and in return
we are getting this pathetic level of service…”
Waheeda Abdulla, a resident of Punjab Street, Claudius, told the Laudium Sun: “Yes, we didn’t have electricity for three days since last Thursday, but luckily we have a solar system in place, so we didn’t have to worry too much. Still, we obviously need electricity in our area—it’s quite bad. Food and other items in our fridge started going off. We installed a solar system in our house because we can’t rely on the Council that much. We’ve had water shortages, and the Council’s service delivery is really poor and slow. The Council needs to have a proper strategy to deal with all the crises happening in Laudium and Erasmia, and they must have a capable team in place to handle and resolve these problems.”
*After electricity resumed in Claudius, Patel claimed that he and ActionSA Councillor, Prajay Ramjee “worked diligently over the past three days to restore power in Claudius.” Some residents have now asked since when was Patel an electrician, for him to restore power in Claudius and wondered if this was another misleading statement of his to the community?