Residents to inform councillors before media
MORNINGSIDE - Residents should not rush to lodge their complaints to the media first whenever they are unhappy about issues.
This was the message from the Councillor for ward 103, Vincent Earp, who urged residents to inform authorities first of any issues and problems before taking it to the media. His message follows a complaint from a resident in Morningside concerning street lights not operating.
According to the resident, who wishes to remain anonymous, the street lights on South Road have not been operating since they were installed earlier on in the year.
“Turning into South Road from Bowling Avenue, the first intersection’s lights work [but] at the middle section, the lights have never worked,” she said.
She added the lights had been this way since March and this was a cause for concern to residents in the area.
Cllr Earp stressed the importance of reporting such matters to the relevant authorities first before taking it to the media.
“If they simply phone their local councillor, he or she will [be able to] start the process from scratch; that is, log the issue and get a reference number,” he said.
Earp added the councillor would then be able to escalate the problem on behalf of the residents should the relevant authorities not attend to the issue.
He added that, in the instance of the street lights on South Road, the matter had not been brought to his attention and if it had, he would have attended to it and ensured the authorities dealt with it.
Earp stressed the need for residents to remain empowered and to hold officials accountable on such matters. He added residents could visit www.citypower.co.za and click ” Fault Reporting”/ citypower.mobi to report any electricity-related matters. Despite several attempts, City Power could not be reached for comment before publication.
